Lufthansa Cancels More Than 30,000 Summer Flights

According to WirtshaftsWoche, Lufthansa will cut 34,000 flights from its original 2023 summer schedule.

This news comes at a time when the German flag carrier is experiencing persistent staff shortages.

The report also indicated that cancellations across Lufthansa subsidiaries like SWISS or Eurowings could increase further. The paper quoted a spokesperson from Lufthansa who confirmed that the summer flight schedule had been trimmed.

"Lufthansa has adjusted the 2023 summer flight schedule from Frankfurt and Munich."

Lufthansa, like many airlines, has had to deal with an increase in travel demand and reduced staffing levels following mass layoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to massive flight cancellations, which caused passengers inconvenience and disruption in the summer 2022.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa confirmed that it continues to struggle with the effects of the current staffing crisis in the aviation industry. Lufthansa has decided to cancel some summer flights to reduce disruptions and inconveniences caused by last-minute flight cancellations.

This approach allows passengers to adjust travel plans and make alternate arrangements in a shorter time frame, which minimizes the possibility of unexpected changes to their itinerary.

Lufthansa launched a huge recruitment drive to help with its recovery from the pandemic. The German flag carrier launched a recruitment campaign in November 2022 to find 20,000 additional employees.

Lufthansa has had a difficult few days due to Friday's staff strike that caused disruptions to more than 1,300 flights.

Lufthansa ground staff in Frankfurt and Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg. Dortmund, Hannover, Hannover and Bremen protested over their pay. Ver.di union members requested a 10.5% increase in workers' wages.

Christine Behle (Ve.di's deputy chair) stated:

"The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations.

"There is still a catastrophic labor shortage among ground handling workers - travelers felt this clearly last summer. To change this situation, an attractive wage increase must take place for them. And aviation security employees are entitled to an increase in the surcharges in the collective wage agreements."

The strike lasted for 24 hours and brought to a halt Germany's largest airports, Frankfurt Airport, (FRA), and Munich Airport, (MUC).

It's worth noting, however, that Lufthansa's strikes by ground staff occurred just days after the carrier was temporarily grounded due to a Frankfurt construction worker cutting a communications cable.

Source: simpleflying.com