Lufthansa cancels 20,000 flights

A Lufthansa plane parked in Berlin on Tuesday. Picture: Lisi Niesner/Reuters

German airline giant Lufthansa Group is canceling 20,000 flights by the end of October.

It says in its press release that this corresponds to about 40,000 tons of aviation fuel, the price of which has doubled since Israel and the United States attacked Iran at the end of February.

Lufthansa says the changes will reduce the number of unprofitable short-haul flights.

The company emphasizes that passengers still have access to the “worldwide route network” and especially to long-distance connections. According to Lufthansa, this is now achieved much more efficiently than before.

Lufthansa has also suspended its flight routes from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszow in Poland and to Stavanger in Norway for the time being.

In addition to Lufthansa Airlines, the group also includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and ITA Airways.

Lufthansa says it expects fuel supply to remain mostly stable during the summer season.

Lufthansa said last week that it will terminate its subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, which operated short intra-European flights.

Lufthansa carries the second most air passengers in Europe after the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair.