Lufthansa and Eurowings have become the latest airlines to cancel flights during busy vacation periods due to staff shortages across the aviation industry.
Lufthansa said in a statement that it is removing 900 domestic and short-haul flights from Frankfurt and Munich schedules in July, with the cancellations affecting flights on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The cancellations are equivalent to 5% of its planned capacity at weekends, the airline said.
Its Eurowings budget unit is also cancelling several hundred flights in July, Lufthansa added.
The German group said that while it was good news that demand was recovering fast after the COVID-19 pandemic, aviation infrastructure had not yet been fully restored.
“The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. This is affecting airports, ground services, air traffic control and airlines,” Lufthansa commented. The airline said it and Eurowings had put in measures to try and secure operations. “However, it is likely that because of the shortages, flight schedules cannot be operated as planned.”
Lufthansa said it was therefore canceling flights pre-emptively to provide customers with more notice. “This is not a decision that Lufthansa and Eurowings have taken lightly, and we regret the cancellations as well as the inconvenience for customers.”
Airlines across the UK have also been canceling flights in recent weeks to try and avoid last-minute cancellations when passengers are already at the airport. KLM has also had to cancel flights due to staff shortages at Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS).
Along with airline staff sickness, problems have been especially occurring due to a lack of ground handling and security staff, leading to long lines for security checks and bag reclaims.