The Lufthansa Group today announced that it hopes to operate 1,800 flights per week by the end of June. A considerable majority of the airline group's planes have remained grounded since the sudden fall in demand experienced in March.

Just last week, Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr told his investors that Lufthansa had been set back by 65 years in the space of only 65 days. However, now is the time for the airline to look at reopening routes once more, but cautiously. As such, the Lufthansa Group today announced plans to operate around 1,800 flights per week by the end of next month.

What's planned?

As we reported today, Austrian Airlines is currently targeting a 7th of June return to service. However, the airline is still considering whether it will resume services in June. As such, they are likely not included in the group's 1,800 flight target.

Meanwhile, Brussels Airlines currently intends to resume operations with a reduced schedule on the 15th of June. It hasn't elaborated on how many flights it will operate. However, we do know that the airline intends to cut its fleet by 30% and its workforce by 25%.

For now, with regards to the group's resumption plan, that leaves SWISS, Eurowings, and Lufthansa itself. The group previously announced the end of airline Germanwings.

Rapid recovery

It looks as though the Lufthansa Group is eyeing a relatively rapid recovery. The group will operate 70 weekly overseas flights until mid-June. This is already four times as many overseas flights as were operated in May!

Lufthansa itself will focus its long-haul recovery on flights to and from Frankfurt. It will only resume three routes from Munich (Chicago, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv). Meanwhile, ten new long-haul routes will be added from Frankfurt, bringing the hub's total to 15 long-haul routes.

SWISS, meanwhile, will initially operate a slightly smaller route network. After all, it is a smaller airline than Lufthansa. The airline is planning eight long-haul flights from its Zurich home, alongside new European routes such as Paris, Brussels, Moscow, and the Mediterranean.

Important Contribution

In a Lufthansa press release emailed to Simple Flying, Harry Hohmeister, a member of the Deutsche Lufthansa AG board, commented:

"With the June flight schedule, we are making an important contribution to the revitalisation of the aviation infrastructure. It is an essential part of the German and European economic power.

"People want to and can travel again, whether on holiday or for business reasons. That's why we will continue to expand our offer step by step in the coming months and connect Europe with each other and Europe with the world."

Not the most significant return to service

While targeting 1,800 flights per week may sound impressive, it's not the most significant schedule that we've seen proposed. Indeed, earlier this week, Ryanair revealed that from the 1st of June, the airline would operate around 1,000 daily flights. Like the Lufthansa Group, Ryanair has implemented a range of new procedures to try and make air travel as safe as possible in the current circumstances.

Where you want to travel when you're able to start flying again? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!