The Lufthansa Group will significantly thin out its group-wide offer in the period from May 1 to October 30, 2021. The group will gradually incorporate the changes into the booking systems from Thursday. This is evident from a message sent to the sales partners.

Lufthansa does not want to comment on this topic with reference to the financial figures, which will be published on March 4, 2021. There is also no further information on the extent of the capacity reduction. From the present letter it emerges that one wants to react “in good time” to the “expected demand”.

The group also wants to ensure that new bookings are made on the basis of the thinned-out flight schedule. This should minimize the effort for rebooking and refunds. Passengers who already have tickets and may be affected by cancellations should, if possible, be automatically rebooked to other connections.

Eurowings cancels 20 percent of the offer

Major cuts are also pending at the Eurowings subsidiary. The FVW reports, citing company circles, that around 300.000 bookings are to be affected by the upcoming thinning of the flight plan. A spokesman for the company put the reduction at around 20 percent. The problem is evidently that there should be no alternative flight connections for around a third of the bookings.

The reductions that are imminent at the Lufthansa Group are by no means surprising. Competitors Wizzair and Ryanair are also approaching their plans much more conservatively and have postponed the resumption of many routes significantly. Also, only a few frequencies are offered per week.

From the totality of the measures taken by various airlines, it can be deduced that after the initial euphoria, the industry assumes that the slow pace of Covid vaccinations in the EU will have a negative impact on summer business. Obviously, it is expected that demand will be low and that tough entry and quarantine restrictions will continue to exist as vaccinations may remain inaccessible to the general public.