Airlines Lufthansa to halve capacity due to Coronavirus

The exceptional circumstanced caused by the spread of the Covid-19 Virus have forced Germany´s largest carrier Lufthansa to halve its capacity by up to 50 percent. The latest developments have caused a drastic decline in bookings.

Lufthansa announced, that the capacity adjustments will take place in the next weeks. They apply to all passenger airline in the Lufthansa Group. This means, that airlines like Austrian Airways, Eurowings, Swiss and Brussels Airlines will adapt to the group´s plans accordingly.

In addition, the entire Airbus A380 fleet can be temporarily taken out of service in Munich and Frankfurt. Lufthansa is currently examining this decision. Lufthansa´s A380s can seat 509 passengers in a four-class cabin configuration. 14 A380-800s are currently in the fleet.

In a statement, the group wrote: "This measure is designed to reduce the financial consequences of the slump in demand. It complements the planned savings actions in the area of personnel, in material costs and project budgets, and other liquidity measures. In addition to an immediate hiring freeze, Lufthansa Group has already offered its employees the use of voluntary individual personnel measures in recent weeks. These include the granting of unpaid leave and bringing forward annual leave. The company is in talks with its operating partners and trade unions in order to avoid dismissals - among other measures - by means various part-time models, including probationary periods."

On March 19, 2020, Lufthansa will announce its key financial figures and will include the burden on earnings to be expected from the outbreak of Coronavirus. It is expected, that the virus will have a massive impact on all airline´s finances.

Lufthansa is the largest carrier in Germany and was founded in 1953. It is part of the Lufthansa Group, which consists of Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Edelweiss Air, Eurowings, Eurowings Europe, Germanwings, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa CityLine and Swiss. The group´s fleet measures 762 aircraft.