Lufthansa cuts flights

Lufthansa Group is cutting 20,000 short-haul flights from its summer schedule through October after jet fuel prices jumped. (lufthansagroup.com) The airline said the reductions equal less than 1% of group capacity in available seat kilometers, but they still remove 40,000 metric tons worth of fuel demand from the plan. The first 120 daily cancellations took effect on April 20 and run through May 31. (lufthansagroup.com) Lufthansa said the cuts center on unprofitable short-haul flying from Frankfurt and Munich while some routes are being expanded from Zurich, Vienna and Brussels. It said three destinations — Bydgoszcz, Rzeszów and Stavanger — were temporarily dropped, and 10 other connections were shifted through other group hubs. (lufthansagroup.com) The company tied the move to a fuel shock linked to the Iran conflict. On April 16, Lufthansa said kerosene prices had more than doubled from the period before the war, and on April 21 it said the price had doubled since the outbreak of the conflict. (lufthansagroup.com; lufthansagroup.com) Industry data shows the pressure is not limited to one airline. EUROCONTROL said average jet fuel prices in Europe closed at $4.73 a gallon on March 27, up 4% in two weeks and roughly twice as high as at the start of 2026. (eurocontrol.int) That same EUROCONTROL report said Europe’s network handled 27,784 daily flights in the week of March 23-29, 2% more than a year earlier, while delays also worsened. Arrival punctuality was 79.0% and departure punctuality was 75.5%, both below the same week in 2025. (eurocontrol.int) Lufthansa is also shrinking parts of its fleet to cut fuel burn. It said all 27 Lufthansa CityLine aircraft will be removed from the flight program, the last four Airbus A340-600s will leave in October, and two Boeing 747-400s will be grounded for the 2026-27 winter schedule. (lufthansagroup.com) The fuel bill is hitting even after hedging. Lufthansa said about 80% of its passenger airlines’ kerosene consumption is hedged, leaving the remaining 20% exposed to current market prices. (lufthansagroup.com) Airlines are also warning that supply, not just price, could become a problem. On April 17, the International Air Transport Association said cancellations in Europe could begin by the end of May if jet fuel shortages worsen and authorities may need coordinated rationing plans. (iata.org) For travelers, the immediate change is less slack in the system. Lufthansa said revised medium-term route planning for the summer will be published in late April or early May, after passengers on the first canceled flights were already notified. (lufthansagroup.com)