The Lufthansa group will cancel 20,000 short-haul flights until October, in a move that aims to reduce fuel consumption, given the increases since the start of the war in Iran.
In a statement published on Tuesday night, Lufthansa states that these flights are equivalent to a reduction of around 1% in passenger transport capacity in the summer.
In practical terms, according to Efe, the German group will save close to 40 thousand tons of kerosene, a fuel whose price has doubled since the start of the war in Iran on February 28.
Most of the affected flights are from the regional airline Cityline, whose closure had already been announced last week, due to the increase in the cost of this material.
The canceled flights are unprofitable routes and depart from Frankfurt and Munich airports.
Despite this cut, the group, which includes Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Italian ITA Airways, will also expand routes in Zurich, Vienna and Brussels.
The Lufthansa group signaled that supply is guaranteed for the coming weeks and that it expects stable supply to operate flights scheduled for the summer – a period in which it intends to optimize supply in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels and Rome.
Lufthansa canceled 120 flights until the end of May and affected passengers have already been informed.
At issue are the temporary cancellations of flights from Frankfurt to Poland’s Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów and to Norway’s Stavanger.
The group also noted that it will review its medium-term plan and should release more information at the end of April or the beginning of May.
Lufthansa is one of the groups, along with Air France-KLM, that presented a non-binding proposal in the privatization process of up to 44.9% of TAP’s capital. The specifications also provide for a 5% share reserved for workers, with the future buyer having the right of preference for any unsubscribed participation.
