Omicron Wave Forces Germany's Lufthansa To Axe 33,000 Winter Flights
NDTV
Europe's largest airline group -- which includes Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines -- was currently running "about 60 percent" of flights
German national carrier Lufthansa will cut its winter flight plan by "around 10 percent" as the spread of the Omicron variant fuels uncertainty about travel, chief executive Carsten Spohr said Thursday.
"From the middle of January to February, we see a sharp drop off in bookings", leading the airline group to cancel "33,000 flights or about 10 percent" of its flights this winter, Spohr said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS).
"Above all we are missing passengers in our home markets of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, because these countries have been hit hardest by the pandemic wave," Spohr said.
Europe's largest airline group -- which includes Eurowings, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines -- was currently running "about 60 percent" of flights compared with the pre-pandemic year 2019, carrying "roughly half" the number of passengers, the CEO said.
