Lufthansa Group airlines planning to cut 50% flights and ground A380s, assuring of flexible rebooking options

The effect of the Coronavirus is ripping apart airlines across the globe, as traffic is slowing down due to weakened demand, and is causing airlines to fly empty aircraft. Not just that, airlines are also marred by the bans that various countries are placing on their residents or the residents of other countries wanting to access their country.

Lufthansa Group, comprising Lufthansa, Swiss, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines amongst others, has been at the receiving end of this lull in travel. Due to the circumstances caused by the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting drastic decline in bookings as well as numerous flight cancellations, Lufthansa Group has decided to reduce the flight capacity on offer. On March 5, 2020, Lufthansa Group was talking of grounding 150 aircraft across the group.

However, as of March 6, 2020, the Lufthansa Group is now talking of capacity reduction by up to 50 per cent in the coming weeks. These capacity adjustments apply to all passenger airlines in the Lufthansa Group. Also, the extent to which the entire Airbus A380 fleet (14 aircraft) can be temporarily taken out of service in Frankfurt and Munich is currently being examined. One of their A380s flies to Delhi daily as well.

Not just that, earlier in the day, Lufthansa extended flexible rebooking options on all tickets. With immediate effect and until March 31, 2020, the Lufthansa Group airlines will waive the rebooking fees for all newly booked flights worldwide and offer a one-time rebooking – regardless of the condition of the original booking fare purchased. Passengers can in future rebook to a new travel date until December 31, 2020, without rebooking fees.

Possibility to rebook existing bookings:

The new waiver policy for existing bookings applies worldwide for tickets purchased before March 5, with a travel date up to April 30, 2020. Passengers can rebook to a new date up to December 31, 2020, without any rebooking fee – regardless of the condition of the original booking fare purchased.

Applicable for both waiver policies: The departure and destination airports must be identical. If the original fare is no longer available, the corresponding difference must be paid. The rebooking must be made before the original travel date.

Bottomline

It will be a hard year for the airline industry, with industry body IATA predicting up to USD 113 billion in losses for aviation globally. So, the next time you are planning to get on a plane, please do be considerate of the crew as well, who are working against many hardships to make your travel safer and more comfortable.

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