About a week after the planned end of U.S. travel restrictions, Lufthansa Groupairlines are experiencing a further boom for flights to the United States. On certaindays in the last week, flights across the Atlantic increased three-fold over theweek before. Demand in the last week on certain routes almost reached pre-crisislevels. Flights with SWISS from Zurich and Lufthansa from Frankfurt to New Yorkand from Frankfurt and Zurich to Miami had the highest bookings from both leisureand business travellers.In Premium Economy, Business and First Class more tickets to the USA were bought than in the same period in 2019. Lufthansa Group is meeting this boom in pent-up demand by launching additionalflights to the USA on short notice. Lufthansa and SWISS, for example, will be offering a combined total of three daily flights to Miami on short notice starting inNovember. There is very strong demand for flights to the USA for the coming December. Newbookings in the past week for this month were as high as they were for 2019 forthe same time period. Flights to New York – traditionally in high demand duringthe Christmas season – have already been bolstered with additional connections.The airlines of the Lufthansa Group are offering up to 55 weekly connections toNew York from their various European hubs in Austria, Belgium, Germany andSwitzerland in December. A further short-term expansion of services is currentlyunder consideration. Alone to New York and Chicago, Lufthansa Group airlines offer more daily connections from Europe in November than flights to the entire Asia-Pacific region.Lufthansa Group expects that the opening of the U.S. to vaccinated EU travelerswill be a signal for other countries and regions to make international air travel easier again and roll back travel restrictions. Additional flights also within GermanyLufthansa Group is also increasing German domestic flights to its European hubsas demand for U.S. flights continues to soar. For example, compared with July,Lufthansa is increasing its domestic German flights by 45 percent from starting inOctober. This means, among other things that as of October there will be nine instead of six daily flights from Frankfurt to Berlin. Flights from Frankfurt to Hamburg will increase from six to eight flights daily. The situation is similar for Munich:The current five daily connections to Berlin will be increased to seven starting inOctober; instead of six daily flights from Munich to Hamburg, there will be up to11 daily flights in the future. And also starting in October, Lufthansa will again operate hourly flights from Hamburg and Berlin to its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich in the morning and in the evening. With the flight schedule expansion, more connections are available throughout theday. This means business travelers who often want to fly in the morning or theevening will benefit from an improved flight schedule as will other travellers.

Forget social distancing when boarding a domestic flight in the United StatesPassengers objecting to current regulations and scream out while on a flight may be procecuted under the Partriot Act facing 20 years in Federal PrisonUS flight attendance are being trained by the same people who train prison guards- not much of a de-escalation attempt. The friendly skies in the United States may not at all be as friendly as they were in the good old PAN AM times. Federal Air Marshals are teaching flight attendants how to deal with the growing risk of passengers who become belligerent and violent, often over face-mask rules. Restrictions that are commonly enforced on international flights including middle seats open, social distancing on airplanes, vaccination rules, are not usually in force for US domestic flights. Many domestic passengers in the United States refuse to follow the rules of mask-wearing due to political, religious, and some for health reasons. This is causing a great number of incidents, that are reported to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) Flying in the age of COVID-19 is stressful for passengers and crew and resulted in 3199 mask-related incidents reported to FAA. Considering only 4385 unruly passenger reports were filed in a year, this is a very high number. To get passengers under control it’s been discussed in the house to punish passenger-related incidents of the same severity as highjacking. The Patriot Act was put in place in the United States in response to terror attacks, not in response to a complaining passenger. Violating the Patriot act comes with a 20 year of Federal Prison sentence. Paul Hudson, president of Flyers Rights has been an outspoken advocate for Passengers Rights and says enough is enough. Comment by FlyersRights.org to the House Aviation Subcommittee on the Increase in Number of Airline Incidents The recent increase in violent incidents in air travel is a serious issue in need of solutions. The subcommittee hearing would benefit from hearing the passenger’s perspective. FlyersRights.org submitted a rulemaking petition to the Department of Transportation in August 2020 to mandate mask-wearing in air travel. FlyersRights.org has been the leading organization advocating for Covid mitigation measures to make air travel safer.  According to the latest FAA data, mask-related reported incidents account for 73% of all incidents reported by crewmembers in 2021. At the same time, non-mask-related incidents are down, and the FAA has more than doubled the number of its investigations. FlyersRights.org proposes the following solutions to reduce the number of mask-related disturbances on airplanes: Implement the yellow card system where a passenger is given a written warning and the ability to send a written complaint to the pilot or airline as means of de-escalationEnsure flight attendants themselves comply with and more consistently enforce the mask rulesAllow greater ease of obtaining legitimate health and disability exceptions to the mask ruleImplement greater covid mitigation measures, including social distancing, and temperature checks. Social distancing must be enforced not only on the airplane, but at the gate, during the boarding process, and at security checkpoints.Reevaluate the TSA mask mandate extensions with a public notice and comment process The airlines have crammed passengers on a smaller number of flights with no social distancing, no middle seat blocking, no capacity limits, no temperature checking, and no covid testing. While some passengers oppose masks for political reasons, others see the lack of other common-sense safety precautions taken by the airlines (social distancing, middle seat blocking, temperature checks) and the lack of consistent enforcement on passengers and flight attendants. Prosecution for a battery is needed when these incidents become violent. However, it would be a severe escalation and a gross infringement on civil liberties to invoke the Patriot Act’s felony “interference with flight crew members and flight attendants”, intended for hijackers, to threaten a passenger with up to 20 years in prison. FlyersRights.org has advocated for a mask rule as well as other health measures to protect passengers and crew members. While most flight attendants enforce the mask rule as best as they can under the circumstances, many flight attendants do not attempt enforcement and themselves violate the mask rule. FlyersRights.org would not attribute the actions of a small minority of flight attendants to the entire group. However, just as enforcement action must be taken against passengers who refuse to wear a mask, action must be taken against these flight attendants who violate the mask rule or who make no effort to enforce the rule. Not only will this help curb the dozens of abhorrent passenger incidents, but it is also vital for the continued health of all passengers and flight crew throughout the pandemic [1] ≈

The end of furlough couldn’t really have come at a worse time of year for the UK travel industry.Although UK domestic recovery is on track for a 2022 rebound, the industry must navigate the normally tough winter period first.Striking a balance will cause headaches for many travel firms – especially those heavily reliant on international travel. With the UK’s furlough scheme set to end this month, the travel companies will be forced to cut costs in order to survive the winter. Travel and Tourism industry experts warn that such measures may well include redundancies. The end of furlough couldn’t really have come at a worse time of year for the UK travel industry. The tough winter season is upon us, and cost-cutting measures will be essential for survival. Unfortunately, this means redundancies are likely, as this is one of the easiest ways to save money. Industry analysts forecast UK domestic travel to rebound to 2019 levels during 2022, when it will reach 123.9 million trips. However, international outbound trips will take longer and will not return to pre-COVID levels until 2024, when they will hit 84.7 million trips. Although domestic recovery is on track for a 2022 rebound, the industry must navigate the normally tough winter period first. Without sufficient demand, revenues will continue to be suppressed and companies will struggle. A fine balance must be struck between redundancies and future agility. Industry experts also point out the dangers of dropping employee numbers to UK travel companies, If companies begin making employees redundant, they are less able to respond to sudden upticks in demand. Striking a balance will cause headaches for many travel firms – especially those heavily reliant on international travel. The quickly changing nature of travel restrictions may see a sudden spike in demand for certain destinations at short notice. If a firm is understaffed, it could miss out on much-needed revenue. Conversely, retaining too many staff could result in costs spiraling out of control. Extending the furlough scheme for the travel industry could buy time for the sector until demand begins to strengthen. However, the prospect is slim.

The gross proceeds are expected to amount to EUR 2,140 million. The subscription price of EUR 3.58 per New Share corresponds to a discount of 39.3% on the TERP (theoretical ex-rights price). The subscription ratio is 1:1. The new shares are to be offered to the Company’s shareholders during the subscription period, which is expected to commence on September 22, 2021 and end on October 5, 2021. The rights trading is expected to commence on September 22, 2021 and end on September 30, 2021. The transaction is fully underwritten by a syndicate of 14 banks. In addition, a number of funds and accounts under the management of BlackRock, Inc. have entered into a sub-underwriting agreement for a total of EUR 300 million and have committed to fully exercise their subscription rights. All members of the Executive Board of the Company have also committed to participate in the capital increase and to exercise all subscription rights received in relation to their shares in full.  The capital increase is meant to strengthen the Group’s equity position. The Company will use the net proceeds to repay the Silent Participation I of the Economic Stabilization Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany (ESF) in the amount of EUR 1.5 billion.  Additionally, the Company intends to fully repay the Silent Participation II in the amount of EUR 1 billion by the end of 2021 and also intends to cancel the undrawn amounts of the Silent Participation I by the end of 2021.  The ESF, which currently holds 15.94% of the Company’s share capital, has undertaken to start divesting its equity interest in the Company no earlier than six months after completion of the capital increase, if the ESF subscribes to the capital increase. In this event, the divestment shall be completed no later than 24 months after the closing of the capital increase, provided that the Company repays the Silent Participation I and the Silent Participation II as intended.  The public offer of the New Shares in Germany is made exclusively through and on the basis of a securities prospectus approved by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), which will be made available, among other, on the website of the Lufthansa Group . The approval is expected to be granted on September 20, 2021. There will be no public offering outside Germany and the prospectus will not otherwise be approved by any other regulatory body.