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Deutsche Lufthansa AG is set to scrub 20,000 uneconomic short-haul flights from its European summer schedule to save on jet fuel, which has doubled in price since the start of the Iran war.
The cuts will amount to 1 per cent of available seat kilometres – a measure of an airline’s carrying capacity – and save around 40 million kg of jet fuel, Europe’s largest airline group said in a statement on April 21.
The move comes after the carrier announced in mid-April the shutdown of its Cityline regional unit and the grounding of 27 older, fuel-guzzling aircraft.
Lufthansa has taken some of the most drastic steps among global airlines since the Middle East conflict started, as it also contends with walkouts by pilots and cabin crew.
The first 120 cancellations were implemented on April 21, effective until the end of May. Broader reductions through to the end of the summer scheduling season will be unveiled by late April or early May.
Globally, industry capacity for May has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all but one of the 20 largest airlines slashing flights, according to data compiled by analytics firm Cirium.
Cirium is revising an initial prediction of 4 per cent to 6 per cent growth for 2026 and says a decline of as much as 3 per cent is possible under certain conditions.
Lufthansa is trying to boost profitability with a plan to cut 4,000 administrative jobs by 2030 and shift more short-haul flying to lower-cost units such as City Airlines and Discover, where crew costs are as much as 40 per cent lower than at the flagship airline. BLOOMBERG