Lufthansa Expects Travel Industry to Take Years to Recover After Coronavirus Collapse

BERLIN (Sputnik) – German flag carrier Lufthansa expects the travel industry to take years to bounce back after taking a crushing blow from coronavirus-related restrictions.

“It will take months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels”, the press release read.

Lufthansa’s executive board took measures on Tuesday to “reduce the capacity of flight operations and administration long term” in an effort to weather the crisis.

Under the sweeping restructuring plan, low-cost airline Germanwings will be shut. All other branches will adjust their fleet sizes by phasing out some of the short-haul planes, while Eurowings will also downsize its long-haul operations.

As of Tuesday, over 72,600 people have died from about 1.27 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infection, while nearly 290,000 have recovered.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of people who have tested for COVID-19 has exceeded 1.3 million worldwide, and 74,476 have died.

Sourse: sputniknews.com