Major European airline axes 20,000 flights after jet fuel price soars

Lufthansa’s airline group has cancelled 20,000 flights in a bid to protect itself from the soaring cost of oil.

Lufthansa Group announced on Tuesday, 21 April that it will cancel flights over the next six months to save 40,000 metric tonnes of jet fuel, which it said had doubled in price.

It said it has axed “unprofitable” short-haul flights operated by its regional subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, reducing the entire group’s capacity by one per cent this summer.

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, said: “Aviation is a low-margin industry. When the price of fuel doubles, flights which were only marginally profitable can become heavily loss-making.”

But he added that flights can be cancelled without too much upheaval for passengers.

“On a typical day, Lufthansa has two flights a day from Glasgow and three from Edinburgh to its main hub, Frankfurt. One or both of the Glasgow flights could be cancelled and passengers moved to Edinburgh. Similarly, Lufthansa flies early each evening from Birmingham to Frankfurt. Those passengers could be offered the choice of Manchester or London Heathrow departures at much the same time.

“Annoying, but not the end of your holiday,” he added.

Lufthansa Group operates the German flag carrier Lufthansa, its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, such as Swiss, Austrian, ITA, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Discover Airlines.

Lufthansa CityLine has hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The first 120 daily flight cancellations took effect on Monday and will continue through the end of May. The airline said affected passengers have been notified.

The group has also permanently removed the 27 Lufthansa CityLine aircraft from operation.

Till Streichert, the CFO of Lufthansa Group, said that it had “already identified the prospective removal of CityLine from our program as part of our strategic development for some time, independently of the current geopolitical crisis”.

“The current crisis is now forcing us to implement this measure earlier. This is a painful step, particularly with regard to the colleagues at Lufthansa CityLine,” he said.

Some routes have also been cancelled in their entirety, including from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów in Poland, as well as Stavanger in Norway, meaning they have been temporarily removed from the flight schedule.

The news comes after the head of the International Energy Agency warned last Thursday that Europe only has around six weeks of jet fuel supply left in what he fears could be “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced”.

Lufthansa Group said it expects a largely stable fuel supply for its summer timetable. Any further changes to the flight schedule from June onward will be announced in late April or early May.

Read more: All the airlines cancelling flights and adding extra charges amid jet fuel crisis