The weakness in the economy worldwide and the persisting substantial effects on the business travel market, have prompted Lufthansa`s Group Executive Board to take immediate action. The Group Executive Board has, therefore, today decided to reduce the capacity in continental traffic by a further nine aircraft and thus adjust the route offer in line with the persisting weakness in demand. This reduction in the offer will mean that as of 1 April 2003, a total of 21 aircraft at Lufthansa and 15 at its regional partners in the inner-European and German traffic will be out of service. The adjustment announced will affect aircraft from the short and medium-haul fleet of Lufthansa AG, three Canadair Jets of Lufthansa CityLine and three turbo-prop aircraft of Lufthansa regional partners.

In addition, further measures will be necessary in order to align the Lufthansa group with the unchanged difficult market conditions. In the first weeks of the new year it was confirmed that, due to the weakness of demand in Germany and the world economic situation, business travel and the freight business are continuing to decline. At the same time, due to a possible Iraq war and as a result of the tax plans of the German Federal Government there is every indication of new burdens on a considerable scale. Therefore, it is planned to examine comprehensive measures aimed at safeguarding the result by mid-February 2003.

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