Berlin (Reuters) - Airlines, car rental companies and bus operators are benefiting from the upcoming longest strike in the history of Deutsche Bahn.

"Eurowings is currently recording the highest number of bookings in more than four years," a spokesperson for the Lufthansa subsidiary told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. "We are seeing a sharp rise in demand, particularly on domestic German routes." However, Eurowings still has free capacity at airports such as Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart. Additional flights and the use of larger Airbus aircraft are being examined. Lufthansa itself has recorded "some additional bookings for its domestic German flights for the strike planned from Wednesday to Monday and is deploying larger aircraft on various routes in order to offer as many passengers as possible the opportunity to travel", according to a company spokesperson.

The company FlixBus, which also has a direct rail competitor in FlixTrain, reported similar developments. "As is usually the case when competitors go on strike, we see a significant increase in demand," emphasized a spokesperson. "Demand has more than doubled this time too." There are currently still enough tickets available. If necessary, additional buses will be used where possible.

"We are currently observing a significant increase in demand throughout Germany this week," said a spokesperson for the listed car rental company Sixt. Its network in Germany includes almost 350 stations. Europcar emphasized that it still has many vehicles available. "However, it could be tight up to and including Wednesday, as we have already received numerous bookings," said Tobias Zisik, Managing Director of Europcar Mobility Group Germany. Europcar has more than 300 stations in Germany.

The train drivers' union GDL has called for a strike from Wednesday to Monday. Intermediary portals are now aggressively recruiting people to change trains. "Bye bye rail nonsense, hello car sharing", says the newsletter from billiger-mietwagen.de, a provider of rental cars and car sharing services.

The association "Die Güterbahnen" - competitors of Deutsche Bahn - pointed out that DB Cargo, which is on strike, only has a market share of 40 percent. "60 percent of rail freight trains are therefore running as usual and often even reach their destinations better because the network is emptier than usual," said Managing Director Peter Westenberger. In rail freight transport, time-critical goods are not transported for the most part and private competitors occasionally take on transports within the scope of their own capacities that DB Cargo is now unable to serve. The strike at DB Cargo is due to begin on Tuesday evening.

According to economists, the planned strike will cost the domestic economy dearly. "A one-day nationwide rail strike costs around 100 million euros a day in economic output," said Michael Grömling, head of economic affairs at the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln), which is close to employers, to Reuters. With the now announced strike duration of six days, the costs would no longer increase linearly, but would multiply in some cases. "We are quickly looking at a billion euros in damage," said Grömling.

(Report by Nette Nöstlinger, Ilona Wissenbach, Markus Wacket and Rene Wagner, edited by Kerstin Dörr - If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)