German carrier Lufthansa has announced it will be cancelling 20,000 flights from its schedule between May and October 2026. The decision is a direct outcome of the jet fuel crisis, with a stark price increase and shortages across the globe.
Since the start of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran at the end of February 2026 and the overall chaos in the Middle East that followed, fuel prices have suffered a stark increase. Jet fuel wasn’t spared, which led to many flight cuts by international carriers.
On 16 April 2026, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, went as far as telling the Associated Press that Europe had maybe six weeks of jet fuel left during an interview. He thus further underscored the size of the crisis.
“In the past there was a group called ‘Dire Straits.’ It’s a dire strait now, and it is going to have major implications for the global economy. And the longer it goes, the worse it will be for the economic growth and inflation around the world. Some countries may be richer than the others. Some countries may have more energy than the others, but no country, no country is immune to this crisis. I can tell you soon we will hear the news that some of the flights from city A to city B might be canceled as a result of lack of jet fuel,” Birol stated about the European airline industry.
On 21 April 2026, Europe’s second busiest airline, Lufthansa, seemed to be confirming his statement by announcing it would be cutting 20,000 flights from its schedule between May and October 2026. Many of those cuts will be achieved by removing CityLine’s 27 operational aircraft from the schedule.
“In total, 20,000 short-haul flights will be removed from the schedule through October, equivalent to approximately 40,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel, the price of which has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict. The planned consolidation of the European network is being carried out across Lufthansa Group’s six hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels, and Rome. Passengers will therefore continue to have access to the global route network, particularly long-haul connections. However, due to the increase in jet fuel prices, this will be achieved significantly more efficiently than before,” a spokesperson for Lufthansa said in an online statement.
Although the bulk of the measures will only start to take effect in May, starting from 20 April 2026, 120 daily flights are already being cut from the schedule. Plans for the summer should be precise at the end of April or the end of May and are likely to feature a set of “optimisations to the short-haul offering”.
Although the flight cuts mainly concern short-haul flights, Lufthansa will be reducing its long-haul capacity by the end of the summer anyway, unrelated to the cost increase on long-haul flights. At that moment, two Boeing 747s will be grounded for the winter season, while their final farewell is scheduled for 2027. Four Airbus A340-600s will also be taken out of rotation in October 2026.
