bottlenecks in summer
Lufthansa has to cancel 2,200 more flights
June 23, 2022, 6:08 p.m
Air travelers face inconvenience in the summer months. Lufthansa is cutting hundreds of connections due to acute personnel problems. Mainly domestic German and European flights are affected. In addition, there could also be time changes, the group announced.
Lufthansa is canceling even more flights due to staff shortages at airports. The airline will take another 2,200 of a total of around 80,000 flights at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs out of the system in the summer, Lufthansa said. 900 deletions had previously been announced for July. This primarily affects domestic German and European flights, but not the classic holiday destinations, which are well occupied during the holiday season.
Connections are not only canceled on weekends, as in July, but also during the week. “In addition, there may also be changes in flight times,” it said. Air transport is struggling with staff shortages in the high season, especially for ground services, but also to some extent for flight attendants. Lufthansa and other airlines are canceling flights in advance and are offering alternative flights or domestic rail connections to avoid chaos.
A Lufthansa spokesman told ntv on request: “The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. This particularly affects airports, ground handling services, air traffic control and consequently also airlines.” Lufthansa has implemented numerous measures and is recruiting additional staff where possible to ensure the greatest possible stability of the flight schedule and thus offer its passengers “the best possible planning security”.
Demand is stronger than expected
Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr had already promised further cuts on Monday. That could be necessary to stabilize air traffic in Europe, which is suffering from staff shortages and delays, said Spohr at the annual meeting of the global airline association IATA in Doha. In July alone, Lufthansa canceled around 900 flights in Germany and Europe on weekends, which corresponds to around five percent of capacity.
Air traffic later recovered more than expected, Spohr said. Most recently, the lifting of the corona test requirement for US flights has boosted demand and ticket prices. The shortage of staff in the industry will possibly continue beyond the summer. Aviation and hospitality are facing structural employment problems. Politicians must pay attention to this, demanded Spohr.
“Flight safety strikes, weather events and, in particular, an increased corona sickness rate have now put additional strain on the system,” the company spokesman said today. “The nationwide increase in the number of corona infections that can currently be observed does not stop at Lufthansa and its employees.” In the past few days, crews have reported sick at short notice. “These industry-wide challenges have meant that airlines across Europe, including Lufthansa, have had to take more flights out of the system in order to be able to cover traffic peaks.”