With Lufthansa Group making cuts in its operations (with the halting of Lufthansa CityLine, the parking of its CRJ-900 fleet, as well as planned widebody groundings), the capacity cuts are coming out.
In total, 20,000 short-haul flights will be removed from the schedule through October, equivalent to approximately 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel, the price of which has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict, reflecting a reduction of one per cent of available seat kilometres (ASK).
The schedule adjustments reduce the number of unprofitable short-haul flights across the Lufthansa Group network.
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, the group plans to do this much more efficiently than before.
Lufthansa Group is also accelerating a key step in consolidating European networks within its hub airlines — Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways. Following this approach, the first 120 daily flight cancellations were implemented yesterday, effective through the end of May, and affected passengers have been notified.
Fully suspended routes include:
- Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz (Poland)
- Frankfurt to Rzeszów (Poland)
- Frankfurt to Stavanger (Norway)
The following destinations will have their operations consolidated with flights, including:
- Heringsdorf (Germany)
- Cork (Ireland)
- Gdańsk (Poland)
- Ljubljana (Solvina)
- Rijeka (Croatia)
- Sibiu (Romania)
- Stuttgart (Germany)
- Trondheim (Norway)
- Tivat (Montenegro)
- Wrocław (Poland)
If you have bookings for any of the above, you’ll need to check with the Lufthansa group airline you booked with to see the planned reaccommodation or refund options.
Into the medium term
With things in the Middle East still unstable, Lufthansa Group (and its subsidiary airlines) has brought forward its medium-term planning, with further capacity reductions planned. This will be published in late April or early May.
According to the airline, this will include optimisations to the short-haul offering for the entire summer season, thereby ensuring schedule stability for the flight plan period.
For the flights scheduled in the summer timetable, the Group expects a largely stable fuel supply. Lufthansa is pursuing a range of measures to this end, including the physical procurement of jet fuel as well as price hedging.
With other airlines taking action to secure their operations and stabilise them for the summer, passengers are in for a bumpy season with schedule changes, as well as higher fares.
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