German media: Lufthansa Air Pressure Big by Avoiding Russian Airspace

A senior executive of Lufthansa said that despite the strong travel demand between Central Europe, competition from Chinese airlines that do not need to avoid Russian airspace is weakening the profitability of Lufthansa's Asian operations.

Lufthansa has mentioned Asia several times last year, including in a profit warning, pointing out that the region has seen the largest decline in yield rates.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war, the proportion of Chinese airlines in China's international aviation market has continued to rise.

This trend is particularly evident in Europe. According to Cirium flight plan data, in 2023, the capacity of Chinese airlines flying to Europe and the UK increased by 21% compared to 2019, while the capacity of non-Chinese airlines decreased by 54%.

"Today, passengers traveling from different cities in Southeast Asia via China to Europe are the target customer groups that Chinese airlines are focusing on developing, which was not the case before the war," Bonifatti said.

Lufthansa Group commits to cutting costs

In October last year, Lufthansa canceled the Frankfurt-Beijing route but retained the Munich-Beijing route as well as the routes from these two cities to Shanghai.

In 2024, Lufthansa's passenger yield rate in the Asia-Pacific region dropped by 9.8%, compared with an average drop of 2.6% across the entire Lufthansa Group. The group has committed to cutting costs at Lufthansa.

"The war is an external factor beyond our control. It indeed puts great pressure on us in terms of costs," Bonifatti said.

He said that Lufthansa is discussing capacity issues with its joint venture partner Air China International, including which aircraft will fly which routes and flight frequency, among other things.

"The issue is not about demand, but how we can have a fair competitive environment," he said.

However, within the Lufthansa Group, there are still some stable markets in Asia. Last year, Swiss International Airlines opened a new route from Zurich to Seoul.

Bonifatti said that the Asia-Pacific region remains a very important market for the group, but there are no plans for new routes in the short term.

He pointed out that due to delays in the delivery of new wide-body aircraft, Lufthansa's current focus is on operational stability.

Source: DW republished by Reuters

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1828684569656516/

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