Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr expects that ticket prices will have to be increased further due to the sharp rise in kerosene costs. Swiss boss Dieter Vranckx argues similarly, who also points out that fuel hedging cannot completely absorb the effect in the long term.

The Lufthansa Group has covered around 80 percent of its fuel needs through price hedging transactions. In concrete terms, this means that fixed prices with a specific term have been agreed with the mineral oil companies. These are currently below the regular gas pump price, so that the Kranich Group benefits financially because less has to be paid. However, every fuel hedging contract has a specific term, so that the airlines in the Lufthansa Group will also feel the sharp rise in fuel prices with a time lag.

Dieter Vranckx and his manager Carsten Spohr therefore assume that the prices for airline tickets will continue to rise. It was only recently announced that the Lufthansa Group, as a first step will raise ticket prices. There is a high probability that it will continue to rise.

Spohr does not expect the demand that was in 2019 to be reached again before 2023. However, he also said that on some routes the booking numbers are above the pre-crisis level. These are mainly tourist routes, which are increasingly in demand from holidaymakers who have stayed at home in the last two years. The Lufthansa Group is also seeing increased sales in the more expensive travel classes. In the business travel sector, the picture is a little different: demand is still well below the pre-crisis level, which Spohr attributes, among other things, to the fact that middle management, in particular, who once loved to travel, continues to use telephone and video conferences.

Travel agencies with a strong presence in the business travel sector also told Aviation.Direct by telephone that the current situation is that many large companies only travel to customers in person when it comes to particularly important things or big deals. Sellers and middle management in particular, who flew personally to pretty much every appointment before the corona pandemic, have to stay on the ground. This saves companies considerable travel costs. This is said to be the main reason for sticking to phone and video conferences. Any environmental protection reasons only play a role in marketing.

Lack of staff at many providers

Many airlines and airports are currently suffering from the fact that many employees have left during the course of the pandemic. The reasons for this are individual and vary depending on the airline or airport and employee. Some providers seem to be taking revenge on the fact that too many staff have been laid off or that they have voluntarily left. It's an open secret that the industry is under-staffed in many places, and that could further hamper the recovery.

Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr sees the core problem not so much with the flying staff, but rather with the ground staff at the airports. He urgently warns that many flights in spring and summer could be canceled because they simply cannot be processed at the airports without long waiting times. Over the past few weekends, the Kranich Group has repeatedly had to cancel flights for precisely this reason. The airports are now required.