Air traffic in Germany will not return to the pre-crisis level of 2019 until 2027, according to a forecast by German Air Traffic Control (DFS).

The recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that broke out at the end of 2019 will therefore not be as fast as in neighboring countries and as previously expected, explained DFS CEO Arndt Schoenemann on Monday. DFS had originally expected the pre-crisis level in 2025. The main reason for this was the limited capacity of the German market leader Lufthansa. Like other airlines, Lufthansa has to wait for new aircraft from the aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing.

In addition, parts shortages and technical problems are causing high maintenance costs. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr said on the fringes of the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Dubai that 100 of the Lufthansa Group's 750 aircraft could not currently be used.

In the current year, air traffic over Germany, which is guided through the airspace by DFS, will grow by five to six percent compared to the previous year's volume of 2.83 million flights. In terms of the number of arrivals and departures to and from Germany, DFS expects 1.7 million flights in 2024, or 79% of the 2019 volume. Air traffic control is well prepared for the peak season in summer, said Schoenemann. Punctuality had improved significantly in the first half of the year in the particularly busy airspace corridor over Germany. There had recently been an unusually high number of disruptions due to thunderstorms. "We haven't had that in the past, so we can see that climate change is having an impact," said the DFS CEO.

(Report by Ilona Wissenbach, Tim Hepher, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any queries, please contact the editorial team at frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)