Lufthansa sees rising demand from key business travel cohort

German aviation giant has already stepped up the frequency of its flights and boosted domestic capacity by 30%

Not only has Lufthansa seen a surge in demand for business class — viewed as a key barometer for aviation recovery —  but the airline is also enjoying a boom in air freight due to the global supply chain bottleneck.

Lufthansa is putting on more flights for business travellers in September and October, the German airline's chief executive has said.

Business travel is being viewed as a key barometer for aviation recovery.

"We are now seeing very clearly that business travellers are coming back," Carsten Spohr said.

He added that Lufthansa had increased capacity on domestic flights by 30% in September and would increase it by another 15% in October.

The German airline giant will reintroduce the hourly frequency of flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg and Frankfurt and Berlin in the mornings and evenings, times popular with business travellers.

Airline is back to 60% of its programme

"In Europe, we are already flying 60% of our programme again," Mr Spohr said.

Business travel is seen only returning gradually after it collapsed during the coronavirus pandemic as many companies have slashed their travel budgets and have got used to holding meetings online.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Berlin, Mr Spohr said the air cargo business was booming.

"In air freight, due to the major unprecedented bottlenecks in global supply chains, the boom has even increased since the end of the summer holidays," he said.

• Reuters