Lufthansa Group Slashes 20,000 Summer Flights, Citing Rising Fuel Costs

Lufthansa Group is slashing 20,000 short-haul flights from its summer schedule, a strategic shift prompted by surging jet fuel costs that continue to squeeze margins across the aviation industry.

The 20,000 cancellations represent approximately 1% of the group’s total summer capacity. Most of the reductions target short-haul connections, specifically those previously operated by Lufthansa CityLine.

The cuts, which extend through October, result in the temporary removal of three destinations from the schedule: Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów, Poland, and Stavanger, Norway. Additionally, 10 other connections—including Cork, Gdańsk, and Ljubljana—will be consolidated across the group’s various hub carriers, which include Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and ITA Airways.

While the first 120 daily cancellations are already in effect for travel through May 31, the group expects to publish the next round of schedule optimizations in late April or early May.

Lufthansa isn’t the only one cutting flights due to rising jet fuel prices, which have effectively doubled since the conflict in Iran started. Air Canada announced it was dropping all service into New York’s JFK International Airport (JFK) through October, focusing instead on service into LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark Liberty (EWR), also because of those fuel prices.