Still not all customers have got their money back from Lufthansa for canceled flights. Now there is a clear headwind.
The resentment of customers is growing, and meanwhile politics and consumer protection are getting involved. Despite billions in financial aid from the state, Lufthansa has not yet refunded all tickets for flights that were canceled due to the lockdown as a result of the corona pandemic. Although the airline would be legally obliged to do so.
The latest warning is the head of the Federal Consumer Association, Klaus Müller (49), who finds clear words in an interview with the partner newspapers of the Neue Berliner Editorial Companies: "It cannot be that Lufthansa receives billions in aid from taxpayers' money and still forces customers to take illegal forced loans . " He asked the airline to fully reimburse all canceled flight tickets by the end of August.
Around a million applications have not yet been paid out
According to a statement made to the Federal Aviation Office, only 3.24 of 4.48 million reimbursement applications have been processed, around 1.24 million applications are still open. At Eurowings, only around half of the 378,000 applications were processed. Including canceled flights from the months of March and April were largely processed. According to a report by "Spiegel" magazine from the weekend, the federal government is increasingly angry because of the delays in payment. "Because of this, emails were exchanged with the group, some of which were armed."
State Secretary Ulrich Nussbaum (63) confirmed the tensions between the government and Lufthansa: "It is incomprehensible that Lufthansa has not yet fulfilled its legal obligations despite the massive state aid and has not repaid its customers immediately." It is a "question of trust". The government already considered the issue of reimbursements to be "very important" during the rescue negotiations.