The Munich Airport revealed that in the upcoming summer flight schedule that starts from March 31st, it will see traffic to Asia reach record levels.
Data shows that currently, 107 weekly flights have been scheduled by a total of nine airlines to 14 destinations that are spread across ten Southeast and East Asian countries.
The flights
Before the pandemic back in 2019, a total of 101 flights had been operated by five airlines that were for 10 destinations covering 7 countries.
Currently, the flights offered from Munich Airport to Southeast and East Asia include Male, Singapore, Taipei, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Seoul, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangkok, Bangalore, Shanghai, Beijing, Osaka and Tokyo.
The airlines operating flights to these destinations include Uzbekistan Airways, Thai Airways, Somon Air, Singapore Airlines, EVA Airways, BeOnd, All Nippon Airways, Air China and Lufthansa.
Munich Airport also announced that the largest passenger aircraft in the world will be temporarily deployed by Lufthansa for meeting the rising demand for air travel.
This would be the Airbus A380, which will start operating from April 1st, 2024 and will be on the route to Delhi.
The numbers
Munich Airport issued a press release in which it disclosed that flights to Beijing will be operated daily to three times a week by airlines from April onwards.
Furthermore, flights to Osaka in Japan would be scheduled five times a week starting from April, while flights will be operated daily from May onwards.
Apart from that, All Nippon Airways, the Japanese airline, will also expand its service to Munich from July 2nd from four to seven flights in a week.
Munich Airport noted that not only do Asian countries offer countless tourist attractions, but also play a vital role in the global economy.
It said that there are various Bavarian companies that take advantage of Munich’s flight offerings because they have economic relationships with markets and businesses in Asia.
Passenger traffic
As far as general passenger traffic is concerned, Munich Airport saw it rise to almost 80% of the levels that had been recorded in 2019 before the pandemic.
Specifically, the total number of passengers that travelled through Munich Airport in 2023 stood at 37 million, which is 22% or 5 million higher than 2022.
Jost Lammers, the chief executive of Flughafen München GmbH, said that the strong passenger growth seen in 2023 highlighted the strong recovery of Munich’s aviation industry.
He stated that it was a positive development and showed high demand for air demand in the economy and amongst the population.
Not only did the number of passengers grow, but there was also a 6% increase in the number of flight movements and a 7% increase in freight movements from 2022.
In addition, Munich Airport saw a total of 99 airlines use its services for operating flights. The airport also begun testing a new service last year.
This was of providing passengers with faster access to passport control and security. The aim of the service is to reduce wait times by managing passenger traffic before security checks in Terminal 1.
