The Lufthansa Group has announced significant, long-term capacity cuts as it predicts it will take years before demand for air travel returns to levels prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
Lufthansa will reduce capacity at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. “The decisions taken today (April 7) will affect almost all flight operations of the Lufthansa Group,” the airlines said in a statement.
Germanwings flight operations will be discontinued and restructuring programmes already initiated at Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines will be further intensified.
Both companies, as well as SWISS International Air Lines, are working on reducing their fleets.
Six Airbus A380s, already scheduled for sale in 2022, and seven A340-600s as well as five Boeing 747-400s will be permanently grounded and decommissioned. In addition, 11 Airbus A320s will be withdrawn from short-haul operations at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs.
Lufthansa Cityline will withdraw three Airbus A340-300 aircraft from service and Eurowings will also be reducing the number of its aircraft with plans to phase out an additional ten Airbus A320s.
In addition, the Lufthansa Group airlines have already terminated almost all wet lease agreements with other airlines.
