Europe’s second largest airline Lufthansa has reacted to the kerosene price spike triggered by the war in Iran by accelerating plans to stop using inefficient planes and trim back loss-making routes.
“The package for accelerated implementation of fleet and capacity measures is unavoidable in light of the sharply increased kerosene costs and geopolitical instability,” chief financial officer Till Streichert said in a statement on Thursday.
The German carrier said it would immediately shut down the operations of its “loss-making” Lufthansa CityLine subsidiary to contain losses and save on fuel.
This means 27 aircraft servicing the major hubs of Frankfurt and Munich “will be permanently removed from the flight program”, Lufthansa said.
As a second step, the company will get rid of four older Airbus planes and ground two aged Boeing planes from October. Lastly, it will further reduce short- and medium-haul traffic during the winter season – a reduction equivalent to the operations of five aircraft.
Lufthansa said it was having to source about 20% of its fuel at increased market prices, and that the announced cuts would allow the company to reduce these needs by about 10%.
The news came as the German airlines’ pilots walked out for the first day of a two-days strike sparked by disagreements over wages and the company’s pension scheme.
(rh)
