Lufthansa Cuts 20 Thousand Flights to Save Fuel

German national airline Lufthansa Group said it would cut about 20,000 short-haul flights from its summer schedule to October to rein in soaring fuel costs since the start of the Iran conflict.

The airline group said the reduction would reduce overall capacity by less than one per cent in available seat kilometers (ASK) while saving more than 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel.

The cuts mainly affect unprofitable short-haul routes from Frankfurt and Munich, while the group plans to expand existing services to Zurich, Vienna and Brussels as part of a wider optimisation across its six European hubs.

Lufthansa said the first round of short-term adjustments, which cover operations through May 31, had been implemented, with 120 daily flight cancellations imposed from Tuesday and affected passengers notified.

The company said at least three destinations were temporarily removed from its current schedule, including Bydgoszcz and Rzeszow in Poland and Stavanger in Norway.

Lufthansa also said 10 connections would be consolidated through other group hubs, including services connected to Heringsdorf, Cork, Gdansk, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Sibiu, Stuttgart, Trondheim, Tivat and Wroclaw.

Lufthansa said the move was aimed at increasing efficiency across its European network while maintaining access to a wider global route system, particularly long-distance connections.

The group said a revised medium-term route planning for the coming months would be published in late April or early May and would include further adjustments to short-haul flight offerings for the summer.

Lufthansa also said its jet fuel supplies were secured for the coming weeks and it was using a combination of physical procurement and price hedging measures to manage the impact of higher fuel costs.