Lufthansa Group is adjusting its summer flight offering across all six of its main hubs, with the group’s overall capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, set to decline by less than one percent. As Lufthansa states in its media release, the move involves cancelling unprofitable routes in Frankfurt and Munich while at the same time strengthening existing operations in Zurich, Vienna, and Brussels.
According to the same release, a total of 20,000 short haul flights will be removed from the schedule through the end of October, which is expected to generate savings of more than 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel. Lufthansa also notes that the price of jet fuel has more than doubled since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran, prompting the group to further adapt its European network in order to improve efficiency.
The company says the consolidation of the European network is being carried out across all six group hubs, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Brussels, and Rome. Despite the cuts affecting part of the short-haul operation, passengers should still retain access to the wider global network, particularly long-haul connections, but with more rational use of capacity. In its statement, Lufthansa also stresses that this accelerates one of its key strategic steps in restructuring the European network within its main airlines, Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways.
The first short term adjustments have already taken effect. As Lufthansa states, the first 120 daily flight cancellations were introduced yesterday and will remain in force through May 31, while affected passengers have already been notified. During that period, routes from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów in Poland, as well as Stavanger in Norway, have been temporarily removed. In addition, ten connections within the group have been consolidated via other Lufthansa Group hubs, meaning part of the traffic is being redirected through them.
Among the routes that will be consolidated are connections to Heringsdorf, Cork, Gdańsk, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Sibiu, Stuttgart, Trondheim, Tivat, and Wrocław. In this way, Lufthansa Group is clearly seeking to reduce the number of less profitable short-haul flights while at the same time preserving connectivity within the network through alternative transfer options.
Medium-term planning for the coming months is still being revised. Lufthansa says the updated operational plan, which includes optimization of the short haul offering for the entire summer season, will be published in late April or early May. The goal, the group says, is to ensure greater schedule stability throughout the summer period.
Despite pressure on the energy market, Lufthansa states in its release that it expects a largely stable fuel supply in the coming weeks. To secure this, the group is pursuing several measures, including the physical procurement of jet fuel and price hedging against market volatility.
This latest schedule adjustment therefore, represents not only an operational response to the sharp rise in costs but also a continuation of the broader consolidation of Lufthansa Group’s European network, with growing emphasis on profitability, efficiency, and the resilience of the system during the peak summer season.
