The Lufthansa Group has published its summer 2026 programme, which is already available for booking. The Group's seven airlines (Lufthansa, Austrian, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Edelweiss, ITA and Swiss) are planning more than 14,000 weekly connections to 330 destinations in around 100 countriesfrom its numerous hubs in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and Italy.
While the programme essentially involves strengthening existing routes, the group will also be offering a dozen new destinations or routes.
Lufthansa: long-haul growth but cuts in short-haul business, particularly in Germany
Lufthansa will above all be strengthening its long-haul services from Frankfurt and Munich, its two German hubs. From Frankfurt, the airline will offer five weekly flights to St. Louis, Rio de Janeiroand Cape Town. Services to Raleigh-Durham, Washington D.C. and Nairobi will move to daily rotation.
In Munich, long-haul routes inaugurated for winter 2025/26 to São Paulo and Johannesburg will be maintained next summer, with three weekly flights operated by Airbus A350-900.
In Europe, strong demand for Scandinavia is leading to an increase in capacity. Lufthansa will launch four flights a week Frankfurt-Trondheim in Norway from 1 May 2026. Combined with the service from Munich, this route will provide at least one daily flight to the country's third largest city. Capacity to other Nordic cities, including Bergen and Stavangerwill also be strengthened.
However, the airline will no longer be serving several European routes. First and foremost you'll find the Frankfurt-Toulouse line stop as well as Munich-Oviedo and Munich-Tallinn. All three routes will be suspended next spring. Lufthansa is still present in Toulouse with its daily service to Munich.
Soaring operating costs at German airports mean capacity reductions on domestic routes. For example, Munich's routes to Berlin, Cologne and Düsseldorf will be cut by 50 weekly flights from spring onwards. The same applies to Frankfurt-Leipzig and Frankfurt-Nuremberg. The airline says it has not yet taken a decision on Munich-Dresden and Munich-Münster/Osnabrück.
Swiss: new cities in Europe and more flights to Japan
Swiss will inaugurate flights to Poznan on 29 March (Poland) and will add Rijeka (Croatia) in July and August from Zurich. The airline will be increasing its frequencies to Alicante, Valencia, Manchester, Montpellier, Tirana, Budapest and Venice. To Japan, Tokyo will benefit from daily flights in April, May and October, and five times a week the rest of the season.
Austrian Airlines: Mediterranean and Northern Europe
Austrian Airlines is stepping up its offer to the most popular summer destinations - Greece, Spain, Italy - by adding frequencies and new stopovers. The company is also continuing to develop its "coolcationsin particular Sylt (Germany), Edinburgh and Lofoten Islands (Norway)in response to the success of Summer 2025.
ITA Airways: back to Heathrow and more leisure activities
ITA Airways will return to twice-daily service from London Heathrow from Rome Fiumicino. Its full schedule will be announced shortly, but the airline is already planning more direct flights from Rome and Milan Linate to the Italian islands, Spain and Greece for the summer.
Brussels Airlines: an 18ᵉ destination in sub-Saharan Africa
Brussels Airlines is strengthening its position as the airline to Africa with the opening of Kilimanjaro at June 2026served twice a week. Flights to Freetown (Sierra Leone) will be increased from five to six weekly rotations. In Europe, the company will be strengthening its services to Spain, Portugal and Italy.
Edelweiss: more long-haul leisure flights
The Swiss company Edelweiss will launch on Windhoek (Namibia) twice a week from June 2026. It will also increase its capacity to Seattle, Punta Cana and Tampa. Seasonal flights to Halifax, Cape Town and Colombo will be extended.
Discover Airlines: new destinations and Seychelles all year round
Discover Airlines will open Shannon (Ireland) and Brindisi (Italy) twice a week from Frankfurt. Larnaca (Cyprus) will be served daily from Frankfurt and Munich, with increased frequencies on certain days.
The Frankfurt-Seychelles becomes annualand a fifth weekly flight to Las Vegas will be provided on Saturdays.
