Thousands of empty machines: Lufthansa sees itself forced to numerous empty flights - the EU contradicts

Created: 01/14/2022, 11:42 am

By: Dirk Walter

Lufthansa sees itself obliged to numerous empty flights because of Corona.

Also here at Munich Airport.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

In the conflict about Lufthansa's so-called empty flights, the airline insists on a rapid reform of the EU guidelines.

The EU Commission, however, sees itself wrongly attacked.

Munich - Between the Lufthansa * and the EU traffic commissariat there is thick air. The reason is a statement by Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr. In an interview in December, he claimed that an absurd EU rule was forcing his airline to fly unnecessarily. Lufthansa has canceled 33,000 flights from its winter timetable due to the Omicron wave. However, another 18,000 empty flights in January and February are necessary just to continue to secure the existing take-off and landing rights.

A part has already been completed, now there are still 11,000 flights that Lufthansa would like to avoid, as a spokesman told dpa.

Currently, around 100 commercially unnecessary, sparsely manned flights are operated daily in the group – some to or from Munich*.

There are also complaints about empty flights in other countries.

Belgium's transport minister complained to the EU about this last week.

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Lufthansa empty flights: EU denies allegations

However, the allegations have been completely denied by the EU Commission. "No airline," said a spokesman for the EU Transport Commissioner on Thursday (January 13) in a specially scheduled press conference, would be forced to empty flights. And: "We have no indication that Lufthansa is carrying out empty flights to secure slots."

The reason for the flights that Lufthansa described as unnecessary is the slot regulation of the EU.

In normal times, airlines have to carry out at least 80 percent of their registered flights in order to retain their take-off and landing rights at the airports*.

This rate was reduced to 50 percent for the 2021/22 winter timetable based on a forecast by the European authority Eurocontrol.

But even this value is still too high, Lufthansa claims.

Because the Omikron wave surprised everyone - and led to a slump in the number of bookings.

Video: The refund rate at Lufthansa is still bad

The problem with empty flights could get worse in a few months

For such cases, however, there is the so-called JNUS rule, emphasizes the EU Commission. JNUS stands for Justified-Non-Use-Of-Slots (justified non-use of slots). Airlines can thus cancel flights during an ongoing flight plan without losing their traditional slots. But Lufthansa considers JNUS to be a bureaucratic and unpromising path. Each individual flight must be declared as unnecessary via e-mail to the slot coordinators of the country of departure and landing. According to a Lufthansa spokeswoman, JNUS stipulates that “extraordinary circumstances” must exist.

But this is interpreted very differently.

"The slot rule that applies to the winter flight schedule was decided before Omikron appeared and no longer fits the current corona pandemic situation*." It would be better to temporarily delete the slot rules "such as in the USA".

The EU Commission is in talks with Lufthansa, it said on Thursday.

But the dispute could soon intensify: For the summer flight plan, which comes into force at the end of March, the utilization rate of registered flights is to be increased to 64 percent.