Lufthansa plans to cancel about 34,000 flights from its summer 2023 schedule, German business weekly WirtschaftsWocke reported.
The company did not confirm the number of flights it would cancel but
did confirm it would be "adjusting its flight schedule for the summer".
The reason for the changes is to "avoid the major operational problems
of summer 2022 and to allow our guests and also our employees to rely on
a stable schedule," according to a Lufthansa statement.
"With
the experiences of the past summer, it was already decided last year to
constantly review the performance of the overall system together with
all partners," the carrier continued. "At present, the personnel
bottlenecks in the industry throughout Europe have not yet been
completely overcome, and in many cases, training of newly hired
colleagues is still underway. For this reason, flights for the summer
months have already been cancelled –well in advance. This will enable
our passengers to adjust their travel plans in line with the
alternatives offered by the Lufthansa Group."
As of 17 February, the carrier had cancelled nearly 14,000 flights
between 1 June and 31 August, compared with what had been in the
schedule as of 6 January, according to data from Cirium. Routes that
will be completely cut as of those dates include Frankfurt-Trieste and
Munich-Genoa.
Routes with the largest number of flight reductions are in Europe and
include Frankfurt and each Berlin, Luxembourg, London Heathrow,
Dresden, Milan, Hamburg, and Katowice, Poland, as well as Munich and
each Leipzig, Dresden, Brussels and Stuttgart. Still, these cuts account
for a varying degree of each city pair's frequencies, ranging from a
70% service decline for Katowice to a 10% decline for Hamburg.
For U.S.-based flights, reductions are planned to be minimal, with
most routes and frequencies remaining intact. Four flights between
Munich and New York's John F. Kennedy airport have been cut compared
with 88 still scheduled.
The number of cuts is expected to increase over the coming days, however, and may expand to the company's other carriers.
Lufthansa had a difficult few days in February. On 15 February, it
suffered a technology outage in Frankfurt that resulted in several
cancellations and delays, and on 17 February it cancelled all flights
into and out of Frankfurt and Munich because of a 24-hour labor strike.
Source: Business Travel News