Lufthansa sees no end to disrupted flights until ’23

Bloomberg

Deutsche Lufthansa AG doesn’t expect flight operations to return to normal until next year, after cutting 3,100 flights from its summer schedule due to staff shortages.
“Unfortunately, we will hardly be able to realistically achieve a short-term improvement now in the summer,” Lufthansa board member Detlef Kayser said in an interview with Die Welt. The only option for now is to reduce the number of flights, he said.
“Overall, we expect the situation to return to normal in 2023,” the newspaper quoted Kayser as saying.
Germany’s flagship airline announced it will scrap 2,200 domestic and European routes in July and August, on top of 900 cancellations unveiled earlier this month. That’s about 4% of the carrier’s capacity during that period,
according to a spokesperson.
Travel demand has rebounded dramatically in Europe with the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, leaving some airlines struggling to cope and subjecting passengers to waiting in line for hours and cancellations. Labour shortages are worsening as a new pandemic outbreak prompts more staffers to call in sick.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG cancelled a total of 3,100 flights after a wave of coronavirus infections worsened staffing shortages, adding to Europe’s travel chaos as the crucial summer vacation period gets under way.
The Lufthansa cancellations add to disruptions at the region’s airports, which are struggling to attract ground-handling staff over pay disputes, further crimping capacity.
Ryanair said less than 2% of its 3,000 flights last week were affected by strikes, with issues confined mainly to Belgium. Most flights elsewhere operated normally, the carrier said in a statement, and it expects “minimal (if any) disruption to its flight schedules as a result of these very minor and poorly supported work stoppages.”
Airports have had to adjust their schedules as a result of the chaos. London Gatwick last week announced it would scrap hundreds of flights over the peak summer travel period — hours after Amsterdam’s Schiphol hub took a similar step — because of the deepening staffing crisis.
Lufthansa, looking to a busy summer to boost sales and reduce debt, had planned to deploy 2022 capacity equal to 75% of the 2019 level. While Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr last month said he was “mentally ticking off the crisis” as the Covid threat recedes, the recent surge is again shaking his summer plan.