After the newest COVID-19 wave and the advent of the Omicron variant, Lufthansa (LHAB) (LHA) is slashing 10% of its winter flying schedule.
“From mid-January to February we are seeing a sharp downturn in bookings,” chief executive Carsten Spohr was quoted as saying in an interview with German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “For the winter flight plan, we have therefore cut 33,000 flights across the group, or around 10%.”
COVID-19 waves are affecting the Lufthansa Group, which also includes Austrian, Swiss, Brussels, and Eurowings, in their home markets of Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland, according to Spohr.
Spohr also told the newspaper that if the company didn’t have to keep its take-off and landing slots under EU laws, it would have canceled even more flights in January owing to low demand.
The statements came after Ryanair, a low-cost competitor announced in January that it would reduce capacity by a third as a result of the newest COVID-19 travel restrictions, which impacted demand.
Ryanair stated that it has not yet made a decision on flight cuts for February and March.
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