FRANKFURT -- The head of Lufthansa said the German airline will not be able to resume pre-COVID flight frequency to Japan and China as quickly as hoped. "We've now realized that it will take a marathon to get through the crisis, not a sprint," CEO Carsten Spohr told Nikkei in an interview.
Demand for air travel remains weak. As of the end of August, the number of Lufthansa flights was around one-third of the pre-pandemic level. Passenger traffic was down by 75%, and the carrier operates roughly half the number of regular routes. Of the 760 planes in its fleet, only 300 are active.
