Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian and Co. reduce up to half of their capacities due to the corona virus. In addition, the A380 could be taken out of service temporarily.
The Lufthansa Group is suffering more and more from the coronavirus epidemic and is taking ever more drastic measures. “Depending on the further development of demand, capacities will be reduced by up to 50 percent in the next few weeks,” the group announced on Friday afternoon (March 6). He justifies this with “drastic bookings” and numerous flight cancellations.
The capacity adjustments relate to all passenger airlines in the Lufthansa Group and are intended to help reduce the financial consequences of the slump in demand. But that’s not all. Furthermore, it will be checked to what extent the entire Airbus A380 fleet (14 aircraft) in Frankfurt and Munich can be temporarily taken out of service, Lufthansa continues.
Probationary terminations should be avoided
There are cost-cutting measures, among other things, in the personnel area, said Lufthansa. “In addition to an immediate hiring freeze, the Lufthansa Group has already offered its employees the use of voluntary individual personnel measures in the past few weeks.” This included unpaid leave and the preference for annual leave.
“The company is in talks with the operating partners and unions in order to be able to avoid layoffs, including short-time work and part-time models,” continues Lufthansa. The Swiss Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss stated in a separate message: “Swiss is now examining various measures to reduce costs.” The introduction of short-time work is currently not planned.
Second reduction within a few days
The reduction in capacity is the second within a few days. It was only on Wednesday that the Lufthansa Group spoke of a 25 percent reduction and declared that around 7100 flights from Frankfurt and Munich would be canceled by the end of March.
“The route cancellations and frequency adjustments correspond to a capacity of 150 aircraft, including 125 short and medium-haul and 25 long-haul aircraft,” Lufthansa said on Wednesday. Now these numbers will increase significantly again. The Group’s fleet currently comprises around 770 aircraft, including around 180 long-haul aircraft.
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