- Lufthansa Group plans to cut 20,000 flights through October due to jet fuel price surge
- Summer capacity will reduce by 1% and save about 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel
- Non-profitable short-haul flights will be canceled and routes consolidated across Europe
Germany-based airline company Lufthansa Group has planned to cut 20,000 flights through October, as jet fuel prices surged with the outbreak of US-Iran War.
Through these cancellations, Lufthansa Group's summer capacity will reduce by one percent of available seat kilometers (ASK) and approximately 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel will be saved, the airline said in a statement.
Lufthansa Group said that a number of non-profitable short-haul flights will be cancelled, with routes being consolidated across its European network, which includes destinations such as Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels, and Rome.
With this move, Lufthansa joins KLM, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, and other major carriers, who have revised their summer flight schedules as jet fuel prices soar due to geopolitical tensions, according to reports.
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The airline clarified that passengers will have access to long-haul connections. However, with the increase in jet fuel prices, it plans the consolidation of European networks within its hub airlines — Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways.
In this context, 120 daily flight were cancelled yesterday, effective till the end of May. The impacted passengers have been notified regarding these cancellations, Lufthansa Group said.
With the cancellation of routes from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów (Poland) as well as Stavanger (Norway), at least three destinations have been temporarily removed from the current flight schedule. Additonally, ten connections are being consolidated within the Group via other hubs.
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For medium-term routes, the schedule has been revised for the coming months considering the capacity reduction and it will be published in late April or early May. This will include optimizations to the short-haul offering for the entire summer season, thereby ensuring schedule stability for the flight plan period.
In the summer season, Lufthansa Group expects a majorly stable fuel supply and adopted measures such as physical procurement of jet fuel as well as price hedging to ensure adequate supply, it said.
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