Lufthansa cancels every tenth flight because of Omikron

Created: 12/23/2021, 3:05 PM

The Lufthansa logo can be seen behind waiting passengers.

© Sebastian Gollnow / dpa / archive image

The Lufthansa Group is canceling its flight program after Christmas due to the spread of the Corona variant Omikron.

“We see a sharp drop in bookings from mid-January to February.

In the winter flight schedule, we therefore have to cancel 33,000 flights or around 10 percent in the group, ”said CEO Carsten Spohr in an interview with the“ Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung ”.

Frankfurt / Main - Above all, there was a lack of passengers in the Lufthansa Group's home markets, i.e. Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, which are currently particularly badly affected by the wave of pandemics.

In this context, the CEO criticized the EU rules on take-off and landing rights, the so-called slots.

Lufthansa would have canceled significantly more flights in January.

“But we have to carry out 18,000 additional, unnecessary flights in winter just to secure our take-off and landing rights.” That harms the climate and is exactly the opposite of what the EU Commission did with its “Fit for 55 "want to reach.

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Spohr expects short-time working at Lufthansa to end in the second quarter.

They are being replaced by other solutions such as increased part-time work.

In the coming year Lufthansa wants to make a profit again in the group.

In 2021, the loss will be halved compared to 2020.

dpa