However, airports and airlines do not yet have enough staff to cope with the rush. This has consequences for the flight schedule during the holiday season.
Lufthansa and several of its subsidiary airlines are cutting their flight schedule in the holiday month of July due to a lack of staff in-house and at ground and airport service providers. Lufthansa Airlines has canceled 900 flights within Germany and Europe at the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich for July. The airline announced this on Wednesday on request.
The deletions therefore affect the weekdays Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to Lufthansa, this corresponds to five percent of the planned capacity on the weekends.
Eurowings and Rynair is also canceling several hundred flights to stabilize the offer for the month of July.
Bottlenecks and staff shortages jeopardize flight schedules
The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. All areas are affected, from passenger control and aircraft handling to flight attendants. There is a lack of employees who looked for other jobs during the pandemic.
Lufthansa and Eurowings have implemented numerous measures to ensure the greatest possible stability of the flight schedule. “However, it is foreseeable that due to the bottlenecks, the flight plans cannot be flown as hoped,” said Lufthansa. Passengers would be informed immediately if flights were canceled.
If possible, rebook them on other Lufthansa or Eurowings flights. Alternatively, passengers in Germany could travel to the airports by train.
The airline asked passengers to be at the airport on time during the upcoming holiday season. In addition, they should use online check-in and check-in the night before if possible. Holidaymakers should reduce their hand luggage to the bare essentials in order to avoid long waiting times at security checks.
Canceled flights also at Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss
According to a report by “SRF”, the Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss is also forced to cancel numerous flights. These are mainly short-haul flights, including from Switzerland to various German cities. But flights to San Francisco are also affected.
Airlines ill-equipped for travel rush
After flight cancellations at major European airlines on the Pentecost weekend as a result of staff shortages, concerns about chaotic conditions during the peak travel season have grown. After departures and layoffs during the pandemic, not enough people are employed and operational in the industry.
“Across all locations, the service providers involved in handling passengers are missing around 20 percent of the ground staff compared to the pre-Corona period. This can lead to bottlenecks at peak times, especially at check-in, when loading suitcases and at air security checks,” said Ralph Beisel, CEO of the Airport Association ADV.
