“Airline collapse”, a severe shortage of personnel, and related mass flight cancellations: last year’s “horror” of European tourists may repeat itself. At least one of the largest airlines in Europe – the German Lufthansa – has already suffered a fiasco and officially announced the cancellation of more than 34,000 flights for the summer.
“We had to adjust the summer flight schedule,” German media quoted the carrier as saying. The reason given by the airline is a staff shortage “which is currently affecting the aviation industry”.
The cancellations will mainly affect Frankfurt and Munich airports. However, a spokesman for the carrier warned that more flights could be affected as “further daily cancellations could always be added”. Although, among other things, with the aim of “preventing last-minute cancellations and other disruptions”, these unpopular measures are being taken.
This event will affect not only Lufthansa itself but also its “daughters” Eurowings and Swiss. Passengers of canceled flights are promised to be contacted soon.
As the experts added, Lufthansa canceled about 2,200 flights last summer. At the same time, mass cancellations have already begun – just last week, the German national carrier was forced to cancel thousands of flights due to a strike and an IT failure at the airport. Tourists were also warned that German trade union Verdi had called for a 24-hour strike at airport workers in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover, and Bremen. Tourists were strongly advised to refrain from travel due to the risk of disruption.