Deutsche Lufthansa has comprehensively revised its flight schedules for the upcoming winter season, which runs from October 24, 2026 to March 27, 2027, reducing the weekly service by approximately 480 flights compared to the original plan. This equates to a reduction of more than 800 services per week year-on-year.
This measure is part of a group-wide consolidation of short- and medium-haul traffic at the Lufthansa Group's six hubs. The aim of these capacity adjustments is to increase the profitability of the core brand and optimize operational processes at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Key connections to the region of the former Yugoslavia, including the capital cities of Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia, are particularly affected by these cancellations.
Ljubljana is temporarily suspending all flights to Munich. After the connection was already temporarily suspended in April 2026 due to the closure of its subsidiary CityLine, the airline has now cancelled all ten planned weekly flights for the entire winter period. Service is not scheduled to resume until the summer timetable at the end of March 2027. The connection to the Frankfurt hub, however, remains stable with two daily rotations. This decision reflects the strategic focus on concentrating traffic flows in Ljubljana on the Frankfurt hub, while Munich is temporarily being discontinued as a feeder hub for this specific market.
For the Zagreb hub, the new plan calls for a halving of flight frequencies to and from Frankfurt. Instead of the originally planned two daily connections, only one flight per day will be operated. To mitigate the capacity reduction, Lufthansa is increasingly relying on wet-lease capacity from its subsidiary Air Dolomiti on this route. Some compensation is provided via the Munich hub, where frequencies to Zagreb will remain stable at two daily flights, representing a slight increase compared to the previous winter, depending on the month. Nevertheless, the total number of available seats for travelers from Croatia remains significantly below initial expectations.
In Belgrade, Lufthansa is reducing its weekly frequency to Munich by one flight, bringing the total to 13 weekly rotations. Despite this recent cut, the airline plans a slight increase in capacity from January 2027 compared to the previous year, provided no further adjustments are necessary. Market observers interpret these widespread corrections as a response to ongoing staff shortages and technical challenges within the fleet. The group's strategy involves selectively thinning out the route network of its core Lufthansa brand to ensure operational stability in the remaining network segments while simultaneously reducing costs in the short-haul segment.