Lufthansa and its low-cost subsidiary Eurowings have announced that a series of cancellations will be implemented in July to stabilize the flight schedule which risks major disruptions due to bottlenecks at airports, ground services, air traffic control and airlines.
After a good two years of the pandemic, Lufthansa Group airlines report high demand for air travel this summer. This is good news after the worst crisis in aviation. At present, however, the infrastructure has not yet been fully restored. The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. This affects airports, ground handling services, air traffic control and also airlines.
Lufthansa and Eurowings say they have implemented numerous measures to ensure “the most incredible possible stability” of the flight schedule and thus offer their customers the best possible planning security. However, it is foreseeable that the flight schedules will not be able to be flown as hoped due to the bottlenecks.
Lufthansa and Eurowings have not made the decision lightly and regret the cancellations and the associated inconvenience for guests.
Eurowings
The cancellations affect flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, equivalent to 5% of the planned capacity on weekends, and passengers will be informed immediately and rebooked if possible. Alternatively, passengers within Germany can travel to the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich by train.
To inform customers as early as possible, Lufthansa has already removed 900 domestic and intra-European flights from the system for July at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Eurowings is also forced to take several hundred flights off the system for the month of July in order to stabilise the tourist offer.
Many airlines seem to be unprepared for the high summer demand and were thus forced to cancel hundreds of flights. Brussels airlines has just announced the cancellation of 148 flights over the summer, while Ryanair also warned passengers that up to 200 flights a day could be disrupted in the coming months. Staff shortages as well as strike actions demanding better wages have left airlines unable to cope with the intended flight schedule.
