In a press release from the Lufthansa Group today, the Cologne-headquartered Group of airlines says it will have a total of 380 aircraft flying again by the end of October. The Group claims that after seeing an uptick in bookings, airlines within the Group are shifting their focus from short-term to long-term planning.

This now means that airlines within the Group can publish a summer schedule until 24 October. The new summer 2020 program is currently active in the bookings system with Lufthansa Group airlines operating 40% of their pre-COVID-19 summer schedule.

This new schedule means that nearly half of the entire fleet will be flying again, with 200 more aircraft in service in July compared to June.

While 380 is an interesting number of aircraft to operate, it is not thought at this time that the Airbus A380 will be included in that number.

The Lufthansa Group is increasing flights as borders re-open

When discussing the Groups capacity in the statement, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG Harry Hohmeister said,

"Little by little, the borders open again. Demand is increasing in the short-term but also in the long-term. We are therefore consistently expanding our flight schedule and our global network and pushing ahead with our restart. I am pleased that we can now offer our guests even more connections to all parts of the world with all Lufthansa Group Airlines via all hubs."

The Lufthansa Group is looking to target summer holidaymakers

By the end of October, the Lufthansa Group is hoping to have 90% of all short and medium-haul flights and 70% of all long-haul flights operational.

The Group's core brand Lufthansa will be flying to 150 flights per week to North and South America from its main Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Lufthansa will serve Asia with 45 weekly flights and the Middle East and Africa with 40 flights. 

Austrian Airlines
Austrian just added 15 other routes after the government lifted a landing ban on arrivals from those countries. Photo: Getty Images

Austrian Airlines

After a successful restart, Vienna-based Austrian Airlines plan to get flying again is in full force with the Austrian national flag carrier expected to fly to over 50 destinations starting in July.

Swiss International Air Lines

Over the coming weeks, Swiss will increase its flights from Zurich and Geneva, by adding further flights to its European network. In July, Swiss plans to be serving 11 long-haul destinations from Zurich, which will increase to 17 by October.

Eurowings

As a mostly leisure airline, Eurowings is significantly increasing its number of flights to popular Mediterranean holiday destinations. 

Eurowings

The Dusseldorf-headquartered low-cost carrier says it hopes to have as much as 80% of its pre-coronavirus network up and running by the end of summer. Following a recent lifting of restrictions in Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Spain, Eurowings has seen a spike in bookings.

Brussels Airlines

Belgium's most significant airline, Brussels Airlines, has said that it hopes to have 45% of its network running this summer. Most of the flights will be to European holiday destinations.

Lufthansa is the only airline in the Group that has the A380

German national carrier Lufthansa is the only airline in the Group that operates the Airbus A380. Lufthansa has 14 Airbus A380-800s, with an average age of just 8.7 years. Seven are currently in storage at Frankfurt (FRA) while the other seven have entered 'deep storage' and are unlikely to return to the fleet.