(Reuters) – Lufthansa’s budget unit Eurowings has seen its number of flight bookings more than double thanks to growing vaccine prevalence and the loosening of travel restrictions, the unit’s Chief Executive Jens Bischof said.
Air travel collapsed worldwide as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, devastating tourism-dependent economies. But Bischof told a news conference that they were now seeing growth and would be expanding their offering over the summer.
Bookings had more than doubled overall, while popular holiday destinations like Majorca had seen an even greater increase. The unit was flying 40 aircraft currently and would increase that to 85 over the summer, he said.
“You can see the optimism returning,” he said, adding that volumes would not reach pre-crisis levels until 2022 or 2023.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Paul Carrel)
