Lufthansa has quietly pulled ahead in the race to move the world in and out of Europe. While Air France-KLM, IAG’s British Airways and Iberia, Turkish Airlines, Swiss and others remain formidable, it is the Lufthansa Group that now sets the pace on capacity, connectivity and network breadth. With more than 12,000 weekly flights to over 300 destinations for summer 2025, rising to over 14,000 weekly connections to 330 destinations in summer 2026, the group has become the central nervous system of Europe’s tourism rebound, coupling aggressive route expansion with competitive fares and a renewed focus on reliability.

Lufthansa’s Network Giant Transforms into Europe’s Tourism Engine

Heading into the 2025 and 2026 seasons, the Lufthansa Group is positioning itself not merely as a flag carrier for Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, but as Europe’s de facto tourism backbone. The group’s airlines, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Discover Airlines and Edelweiss, are preparing more than 12,000 weekly connections to over 300 destinations worldwide for summer 2025, funneled through hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels. That figure will climb further to about 14,000 weekly flights and 330 destinations in around 100 countries in summer 2026, signaling one of the most ambitious expansions in the European market.

This scale now surpasses many traditional rivals in Europe, particularly in the crucial leisure and visiting-friends-and-relatives segment that powers tourism recoveries. Air France-KLM, IAG and Turkish Airlines maintain large global networks, but no other European group now combines such a dense intra-European mesh with global long haul links through four major continental hubs and one secondary Brussels hub. For travelers, that translates into shorter connection times, more choice of departure cities, and a far better chance of finding a convenient, competitively priced itinerary to sun, ski or city-break destinations.

The group’s financial performance underpins this growth. Lufthansa reported record revenue of 37.6 billion euros in 2024 and carried more than 130 million passengers, with load factors just above 83 percent. Even in an environment of higher costs and widespread capacity increases across the industry, the company produced an operating profit of 1.6 billion euros and signaled that 2025 earnings should exceed that level. This financial muscle gives the group the ability to invest in new routes, aircraft and product upgrades while keeping fares sharp enough to stimulate tourism demand rather than merely harvest it.

More Cities, More Sunshine: Direct Connectivity Fuels the Boom

Lufthansa’s expansion strategy is tightly synchronized with Europe’s tourism rebound. The group is not simply restoring pre-pandemic links but systematically reaching deeper into secondary and emerging destinations that appeal to holidaymakers and regional travelers. For summer 2025, Lufthansa Airlines is adding southern Italian favorite Lamezia Terme from Frankfurt and the Corsican gateway of Figari, while Swiss International Air Lines will link Zurich to Dubrovnik up to five times weekly, and Brussels Airlines will debut flights to Funchal in Madeira. These are classic leisure hotspots, and the new flights are timed to match peak holiday travel, creating direct routes where previous itineraries often required complex connections.

The breadth is striking. Across all brands, the Lufthansa Group will offer more than 12,000 weekly connections to more than 300 destinations in over 100 countries in 2025. By 2026, that will expand to around 14,000 weekly connections and 330 destinations. Additional Northern European destinations are also being layered in, with Trondheim in Norway joining the Frankfurt network from May 2026, complementing expanded services to Bergen, Stavanger and other Scandinavian cities. This dual focus on sun and Scandinavia targets both classic holidaymakers and higher-yield cultural and nature tourism segments.

For travelers, this explosive growth translates directly into more affordable direct flights. Strong competition within the group’s own brands and against low cost rivals keeps price pressure high, while the sheer density of frequencies allows carriers to spread fixed costs over more seats. On historically under-served routes, new nonstops often launch at attractive promotional fares that undercut legacy one-stop options. The result is a virtuous cycle in which lower prices and better schedules entice new travelers, who then justify additional capacity and higher frequencies, further anchoring tourism flows.

Eurowings and Discover: Leisure Specialists Drive Affordable Direct Flights

Two group subsidiaries, Eurowings and Discover Airlines, sit at the heart of Lufthansa’s tourism surge. Eurowings, described by the company as Germany’s largest leisure airline, now offers around 150 destinations in 40 countries and is aggressively adding medium-haul and long-haul routes perfectly tailored to holiday and visiting-friends-and-relatives demand. The carrier is expanding its winter 2025/2026 program with new flights from Berlin to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Beirut and Marsa Alam, from Cologne to Erbil and Fez, from Hanover to Dubai, Beirut, Erbil and Marrakesh, and from Stuttgart to Amman, Dubai, Jeddah and Marrakesh. These routes offer direct, low-friction access from secondary German and Central European cities to some of the most sought-after winter sun destinations.

Eurowings’ strategy explicitly targets affordability. The carrier routinely prices below full-service competitors on comparable routes, while still allowing travelers to benefit from the broader Lufthansa Group network and loyalty program. Its expanding Dubai network is a prime example. From winter 2025/2026, Berlin will see up to eleven Eurowings flights a week to Dubai, while Cologne, Hanover, Stuttgart and other airports gain or increase connections. For European tourists, these direct flights significantly reduce travel time and cost to the Gulf’s beaches and city attractions, enabling short breaks that previously required more expensive long haul connections.

Discover Airlines complements Eurowings by focusing on medium- and long-haul leisure traffic from Frankfurt and Munich. For summer 2025, Discover will serve 36 short and medium haul destinations from Frankfurt and 29 from Munich, with a particular emphasis on Greece, Bulgaria and the Nordic region. New additions include Ålesund and Bodø in Norway, Reykjavik in Iceland, Kefalonia and Kalamata in Greece, and Burgas on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. The carrier will also add long haul holiday favorites such as Windhoek in Namibia, Orlando and Calgary from Munich, expanding European tourists’ access to safari, theme park and outdoor adventure destinations via direct or one-stop itineraries.

By dedicating two brands specifically to leisure travel, the Lufthansa Group can design aircraft configurations, onboard service and pricing models that are optimized for tourists rather than corporate road warriors. That specialization allows for sharper introductory fares, family-friendly schedules and holiday-centric ancillary services, all of which encourage Europeans and inbound visitors to travel more frequently and to a broader range of destinations.

Lufthansa’s leadership in Europe’s tourism resurgence also rests on its long haul network, particularly transatlantic and Africa services that feed visitors into European cities and resorts. The airline has systematically grown its presence in the United States, building a portfolio that now exceeds its pre-pandemic footprint. Earlier expansions brought first-time scheduled flights to Minneapolis and Raleigh-Durham, alongside new services from Munich to Seattle, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. These additions broaden the funnel for North American travelers heading into Europe, offering alternatives to the traditional gateways of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

The trend will accelerate toward 2026. From Frankfurt, Lufthansa plans to operate five weekly flights to St. Louis and Cape Town, six weekly to Rio de Janeiro, daily to Raleigh-Durham and Nairobi, and twice-daily to Washington. From Munich, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg will move from winter-only routes into the summer schedule, locking in year-round connectivity between southern hemisphere tourism centers and central Europe. Combined with the group’s North American partners and a deep European network, these links make it easier for travelers to pair US and Latin American trips with European city breaks or beach escapes in a single itinerary.

Africa and the Middle East are also front and center. Austrian Airlines will introduce Dubai from Vienna, Brussels Airlines will bolster its already strong African coverage with new services to cities such as Abidjan, Accra, Dakar, Freetown and Nairobi, and Discover Airlines will operate from Frankfurt to the Seychelles and from Munich to Punta Cana and Windhoek in winter 2025/2026. Eurowings’ medium haul links from multiple German and Central European airports to cities like Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Marrakesh, Marsa Alam and Amman bridge the gap between low cost short haul and premium long haul, often at attractive price points that appeal to holidaymakers.

For inbound tourism into Europe, these long haul connections are decisive. Travelers from Africa, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia can now reach a wide array of European secondary and tertiary destinations with a single connection through Lufthansa hubs. This spreads tourism spending beyond traditional capitals into smaller coastal towns, alpine regions and historic provincial cities, amplifying the economic impact and helping less famous destinations participate in the boom.

Beyond the Big Three: Surpassing Rivals in Connectivity and Scale

While Air France-KLM, British Airways and Iberia within IAG, Turkish Airlines, Swiss and KLM have long dominated Europe’s international connectivity, the current moment belongs to Lufthansa’s multi-brand system. The group’s combination of flagship full-service airlines and dedicated leisure carriers yields a web of routes that is difficult for single-brand competitors to match in both depth and flexibility. With more than 130 million passengers in 2024 and a record revenue year, the group is now among the most powerful aviation players globally, mirroring or exceeding the throughput of key competitors on many European and transatlantic corridors.

In practice, this allows Lufthansa to field a broader range of fares and products than many rivals. Price-sensitive travelers can book Eurowings or Discover point-to-point, while premium passengers select Lufthansa, Swiss or Austrian for long haul business cabins and full-service intra-European flights. All are knitted together by common hubs, code-shares and loyalty benefits, creating a quasi-ecosystem in which many travelers never need to look outside the group when planning complex multi-city itineraries.

Turkish Airlines remains a formidable competitor, particularly for connections to Asia, the Middle East and Africa through its Istanbul hub. Air France-KLM and IAG also maintain strong North American networks and high brand recognition. But Lufthansa’s current expansion pace, especially in leisure-heavy regions such as southern Europe, Scandinavia, the Balkans, the Caribbean and parts of Africa, puts it directly in the slipstream of these giants and, on many measures of connectivity, out in front. For European tourism, that dominance translates into greater route diversity and a higher probability that a traveler will find a direct or single-connection option to virtually any major leisure destination.

Reliability, Capacity and Pricing: The Formula Behind the Surge

Beyond the raw numbers of destinations and flights, a key component of Lufthansa’s recent advantage is the group’s focus on operational stability. After the turbulence of 2022 and 2023, European travelers became acutely sensitive to delays and cancellations. Lufthansa reports that by the first half of 2025, punctuality and regularity for its core brand exceeded 2019 levels, reversing the narrative of disruption that had plagued many carriers. A strong second quarter in 2025 saw net profit more than double year-on-year, underpinned by higher traffic and capacity, signaling that the carrier can now add seats without sacrificing reliability.

This matters for tourism because travelers booking holidays months in advance are often less tolerant of uncertainty than corporate passengers who can rebook at short notice. Reliable operations encourage bookings on the fringes of the season, stretching tourism flows into spring and autumn rather than concentrating them into a few high-summer weeks. That, in turn, supports year-round service to destinations that might otherwise be relegated to seasonal charters, deepening their integration into the global travel map.

Capacity increases also exert downward pressure on fares. As Lufthansa and its rivals put more seats into the market, especially on popular summer routes, yields tend to soften. The group has acknowledged a significant decline in average yields at the beginning of the 2024 summer due to industry-wide capacity growth, yet its load factors remained historically high. For travelers, this is good news. The combination of strong demand, plenty of seats and heightened competition among both network and low cost carriers has created an environment where advance-booked leisure fares on Lufthansa Group airlines can be surprisingly affordable, especially from secondary cities historically reliant on costly one-stop itineraries.

What It Means for Travelers Planning Europe in 2025 and 2026

For visitors looking ahead to Europe in 2025 and 2026, Lufthansa’s ascent translates into tangible planning advantages. The sheer variety of gateways and direct routes gives travelers the flexibility to fly into one city and out of another, avoid congested hubs, or tailor itineraries around specific events or regions. A traveler from the US Midwest can now connect through Frankfurt or Munich into smaller Mediterranean islands, Scandinavian fjords or Balkan coastal towns with relative ease, while Europeans can access Dubai, the Red Sea, the Caribbean or Southern Africa through an expanding set of direct leisure services from cities such as Berlin, Cologne, Hanover, Vienna, Zurich or Munich.

At the same time, Europe’s internal tourism map is becoming more finely grained. Cities like Lamezia Terme, Figari, Niš, Montpellier, Heringsdorf, Burgas, Ålesund and Bodø are moving onto mainstream booking engines through Lufthansa Group schedules. Many of these destinations combine lower on-the-ground costs than Europe’s classic capitals with increasingly competitive airfares, making them attractive options for budget-conscious travelers and those seeking less crowded alternatives.

For tourism boards, hoteliers and local businesses, Lufthansa’s growth offers both opportunity and urgency. Increased capacity can rapidly elevate a destination’s profile, but it also raises the bar in terms of service, infrastructure and sustainability. Regions newly connected to Lufthansa Group hubs will need to ensure that transport links, accommodation stock and visitor services keep pace with rising arrivals. Those that succeed stand to gain not only seasonal holidaymakers but also conference delegates, remote workers and repeat visitors drawn by the convenience of direct flights.

As Europe’s tourism boom gathers momentum into the middle of the decade, Lufthansa’s role is clear. By overtaking traditional rivals on connectivity, aligning its multi-brand network with leisure demand, and deploying capacity at scale across sun, city and adventure markets, the group has become a central engine of the continent’s travel recovery. For travelers, the message is simple: more choice, more direct routes, and more affordable access to an ever-widening map of European and global destinations.