The German Aerospace Center assumes that the number of flights operated from the Federal Republic of Germany in the summer of 2024 will increase by around 5,3 percent in direct comparison to the previous season. However, it will still be a long way from the pre-crisis level.

Within the European Union, Germany is doing particularly poorly when it comes to aviation's recovery from the consequences of the corona pandemic. For example, traffic within Germany has only reached around half of the volume it had before the pandemic. With very few exceptions, the Lufthansa Group has achieved a real monopoly position. Easyjet, which was active on some domestic German routes before the crisis, has largely withdrawn. This alone has led to a massive decline in supply and prices have sometimes risen sharply due to a lack of competition.

In addition, domestic flights are already disproportionately taxed because the aviation tax is high and VAT is also due. From May 2024, the government will turn the money screw again, which will lead to prices rising again. This not only means that it will have a dampening effect on domestic demand, but also that potential competitors are unlikely to compete with the Lufthansa Group in domestic traffic. This is exactly what the green part of the German federal government would particularly like, because if they had their own way, domestic flights would have long been banned.

The DLR assumes that there will be around 2024 domestic flights in July 10.100. In comparison: In July 2019 there were 20.300 domestic flight movements. This means that the offer – from today’s perspective – is still halved. It is still noteworthy that the vast majority of the planned flights are to be carried out within Germany, even though the offer is halved compared to the value that it had before the corona pandemic.

Taking international flights into account, the DLR predicts that in the summer of 2024 the offer from Germany will be 20,5 percent below what existed before the crisis. Only in the direction of North America will the pre-crisis level be reached again. In the direction of Central and South America there would even be a further reduction in supply.