Lufthansa hoping to increase China capacity

The German carrier Lufthansa has said the airline is looking to further expand capacity to China, after restoring capacity to Shanghai to pre-COVID levels.

"For Lufthansa, China is one of the most important markets in the world outside Europe. We are pretty happy that we already received pre-pandemic capacity here in Shanghai," said Jens Ritter, CEO of Lufthansa Airlines. "Hopefully in the next couple of years we can extend our network also here in China."

Having a strong connection and close relationship between Germany and China, Lufthansa will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2026, as well as the carrier's first connection between the two countries.

"I think it is a great relationship we have here for almost 100 years. There's a strong connection between the fourth-biggest economy in the world Germany and the second-biggest economy China," Ritter said. "We are pretty proud of our strong connection. We truly believe in the recovery of air travel between Germany and China for the next years."

Currently operating the most flights to China among all European carriers, Lufthansa offers 40 weekly direct connections between the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich to the Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing in the summer time.

"In comparison to last year, we increased our capacity by over 70 percent," added Ritter. "Hopefully next year with the introduction of new aircraft we can increase this capacity further."

The expanding capacity is accompanied with a rapid recovery in the passenger load factor, "especially during the summer time with a seat factor of more than 90 percent," Ritter said.

"We are looking forward to further development and we are pretty sure that we will come back to pre-pandemic capacity here between Europe, Germany and China," said Ritter.

Plus, in a bid to boost the China travel market during the holiday season and further enhance the customer experience onboard, Shanghai was the airline's first Asian destination, as well as the fourth worldwide following Vancouver, Toronto and Chicago, to introduce the carrier's brand-new cabin products on a daily basis since Aug 14.

Under the name, Lufthansa Allegris, the completely new travel experience is available on select long-haul routes for passengers of economy, premium economy, business and first class.

"We truly believe that people do not want a standard product anymore, they would like to have more choices, more exclusivity and they would like to have more individuality," explained Ritter. "I think also the Chinese people would like to have a choice. One standard product does not fulfill the needs of the requirements for the premium sector of Chinese people. They would like to have more individuality, more possibility for exclusivity and they would like to choose. We are pretty happy to introduce our new Allegris product because we definitely believe that this will fulfill the needs of our Chinese customers."

Confidence in the Chinese market is based on the optimistic outlook of China's economy, the strong economic ties between China and Germany, and China's visa-free policies.

"Germany has a strong connection with China, because so many companies are based from Germany here in China," Ritter said. "It is a long-lasting relationship and we truly believe in those two economies and we need to tie them."

Figures provided to the Financial Times by Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, show that Germany's direct investment in China totaled 2.48 billion euros ($2.76 billion) in the first three months of 2024, and the figure rose substantially to 4.8 billion euros in the second quarter.

"I think this represents a strong relationship between our two economies," said Ritter.

In the meantime, China's visa-free policy presents new opportunities for carriers such as Lufthansa, as eligible ordinary passport holders from countries including Germany can enjoy visa-free travel to China for up to 15 days.

Thanks to the collaborated efforts of Civil Aviation Administration of China and related government divisions, international passenger flights have been restored to nearly 80 percent of the 2019 level during the first week of July, and passenger flights to 30 countries, including the UK and UAE, surpassing the 2019 level, according to Xu Qing, an official with the CAAC.

"The expansion of China's visafree policy to more countries has created an incentive effect on the aviation market," Xu said.