Lufthansa cancels 900 flights in July due to lack of staff

German airline Lufthansa announced today that it will cancel about 900 flights in July, amid staff shortages affecting almost all European airlines.

Welcoming the increase in bookings, with the lifting of most restrictions on Covid-19 in Europe, Lufthansa acknowledged in a statement that it was unable to meet demand.

“Infrastructure has not yet fully recovered” from “the most serious aviation crisis,” the pandemic, he explained.

Due to “financial difficulties and staff shortages” the company decided to cancel 900 flights to German and European destinations. These flights would be operated on Fridays and weekends to and from Frankfurt and Munich airports.

Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Eurowings said in a statement that it would cancel “several hundred flights” in July.

Lufthansa is not the first European company to be forced to cancel flights due to lack of staff. A similar decision was made by the Dutch KLM in May.

“The challenge at the moment is to manage the sharp increase in demand, as the pandemic has resulted in a drastic reduction in the means of airports,” admitted Olivier Jankovets, then general manager of ACI Europe, the main association of European airports.

Staff shortages occur not only at companies but also at airports and air traffic controllers. The sector is finding it difficult to hire staff, while the labor market “is very tense across Europe,” Jankovec said.

In the two years of the pandemic and the restrictions, Lufthansa suffered huge losses and lost more than 30,000 jobs.

Those who had already booked the canceled flights will be informed and will change their flight, the company assured.

To avoid huge queues and delays at airports, the company advised passengers to arrive well in advance and have only one hand luggage with them.