Late yesterday, aviation big beast Lufthansa has announced that it has cut approx 7,100 of its flights in Europe, nearly a quarter of its total capacity in the region.

However, to main connectivity, Lufthansa has made assurances that, despite the cancellations, its European destinations will continue to be serviced and, in most cases, customers will be offered a suitable alternative.

Due to the exceptional circumstances caused by the spread of the coronavirus and the decline in demand, the Lufthansa Group has also decided to reduce capacity by up to 25 per cent. The route cancellations and frequency adjustments correspond to a calculated capacity of 150 aircraft, of which 125 are short- and medium-haul and are 25 long haul. The Lufthansa Group fleet currently comprises of approximately 770 aircraft, including some 180 long-haul aircraft.

The route cancellations and frequency adjustments will be implemented successively and the passengers affected will be informed about the changes and rebooking options. Until the end of March, Lufthansa is cancelling a total of approximately 7,100 flights (including 3,750 flights from Frankfurt to 75 airports, and 3,350 flights from Munich to 65 airports).

The focus is on domestic flights from the Frankfurt hub to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg as well as from Munich to Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bremen and Hanover. These are high-frequency connections, some of which are operated up to every half an hour by Lufthansa. Numerous rebooking options are available.

A second focus of the route cancellations and frequency adjustments is Italy. This includes the destinations Milan, Venice, Rome, Turin, Verona, Bologna, Ancona and Pisa.

Furthermore, the airline already decided last week to suspend flights from Germany to mainland China until 24 April inclusive. The connection to Tehran will remain cancelled until 30 April.

Lufthansa is also reducing frequencies in its route network to and from Hong Kong and Seoul (Korea), among others. Flights between Munich and Hong Kong will be suspended between 6 March and 24 April. Passengers will be rebooked via Frankfurt and Zurich if possible during this period. Between 5 March and 24 April, some frequencies will also be cancelled on routes from Frankfurt and Munich to Seoul.