Investigations are underway to determine the cause and extent of the outage. KAI PFAFFENBACH / REUTERS
Flight delays and cancellations are seen across Germany, according to the airline.
Air traffic is severely disrupted on Wednesday at Frankfurt (west) and Munich (south) airports, the two largest in Germany, due to a massive computer failure caused by construction work and affecting flights operated by the Lufthansa airline group. “All departures and landings in Frankfurt are suspended for the time being“, while the traffic “from and to Munich is partially affected“, said the group. A massive computer failure caused the cancellation of many flights operated by the German airline group Lufthansa, which also owns Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines.
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“We do not yet have any indication of the number of flights affected by these disruptions.“, However, said a spokesperson for the group. Due to the “missing space“Lufthansa planes being grounded, “no landing was madeat Frankfurt airport for several hours. Late morning, “some planes were able to land again, but in isolation“, he added. In Munich, secondhub“airport of the country, of the”isolated flight cancellationswere decided, said his manager. These mainly concern domestic German flights. But some international flights are also affected. According to the press, Bayern Munich footballers stayed longer than expected in Paris on Wednesday morning, due to the delay of their plane, the day after their victory against PSG in the Champions League.
Four “damaged” internet cables
At Frankfurt airport, confusion reigned among travelers on Wednesday, forming lines of several hundred meters in front of the counters. The outage was caused by “construction work in the Frankfurt area“, detailed Lufthansa on Twitter, which assures”work on a solution“. Four internet cables operated by Deutsche Telekom were “damagedLast night, during work on a train line, causing this breakdown, a spokesperson for the telecommunications group told AFP. Result: the group’s computer system, responsible in particular for boarding and passenger check-in, ceased to function.
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“TwoThese cables, installed 5 meters deep, have however already been repaired, assures Deutsche Telekom. “We ask our customers flying domestic routes within Germany to book a train ticket and request a refund“, added the group, which ensures that”air activity should return to normal in the evening“.
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