Lufthansa cuts 20,000 flights due to soaring jet fuel

Lufthansa said it is removing a total of 20,000 short-haul flights from its schedule until October in an effort to offset the higher cost of jet fuel.

It said this equates to a cut of less than 1% in its group capacity.

The German airline said the flights being cut will save about 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel, the price of which has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict.

The airline said the schedule adjustments reduce the number of unprofitable short-haul flights across the Lufthansa Group network.

The first 120 daily flight cancellations were implemented earlier this week and affected passengers have been notified.

With the cancellation of routes from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów (Poland) as well as Stavanger (Norway), it said that at least three destinations have been temporarily removed from the current flight schedule.

Ten connections are being consolidated within the group via other hubs including flights from Cork, Stuttgart, Gdańsk and Wroclaw.

In a statement, Cork Airport said this will impact the four times weekly Lufthansa Cityline Cork to Frankfurt route.

“For the period from now until the end of May, the suspension of several routes and reduction of frequencies is unfortunately unavoidable, including the Frankfurt-Cork service,” the Cork Airport statement said.

“Lufthansa advise that the full Cityline flight schedule Europe-wide is currently under review and therefore a reliable assessment of the impact cannot be provided at this stage,” it added.

Since it first started operations at Cork Airport in 2021, the Lufthansa Cityline Frankfurt-Cork service grew from initially operating a three-times weekly service to a four-times weekly service last year.

This year, it was expected that the airline would operate a six-times weekly service.

“Lufthansa advise passengers with bookings on Lufthansa Cityline to contact the airline directly for further information. We are working directly with Lufthansa mainline and other airlines to secure the timely re-instatement of the Frankfurt service,” the Cork Airport statement concluded.

For the flights scheduled in the summer timetable, Lufthansa said it is expecting a largely stable fuel supply.

“Lufthansa is pursuing a range of measures to this end, including the physical procurement of jet fuel as well as price hedging,” it added.