In response to the sharp fall in passenger bookings, particularly on routes to America and Asia, the Lufthansa Executive Board today announced cuts in the airline`s capacity on intercontinental routes. Additional services scheduled for the summer timetable will be postponed from 30 March. As a result, the long-range fleet will be reduced by seven aircraft. Despite these measures, Lufthansa will continue to serve all its destinations as before.
The majority of cuts will affect services to North America, which have been hit particularly badly by the slump in demand following the outbreak of war in Iraq. On routes from Frankfurt to New York, Boston and Los Angeles, for example, one flight per day will be axed. In addition, individual flights from Frankfurt to Phoenix and Dallas will be scrapped, and smaller aircraft will deployed between Frankfurt and Philadelphia. On routes to South America, frequencies to Caracas will be reduced from six to three per week.
In Asia, services to Nagoya will not be boosted from three to five a week as planned, and smaller aircraft will serve Osaka and Seoul. In the Africa traffic region, seasonal services on the Munich-Johannesburg route will be terminated early, from 7 May 2003. All services to the Middle East will operate as normal, except for flights to Dammam and Kuwait, which have been suspended for security reasons. Apart from these two airports, Lufthansa will continue to fly to all its long-haul destinations.
Further capacity reductions may be necessary on short and long-haul routes. Any further decisions will be taken at short notice and based on customer demand. In February the Lufthansa Executive Board announced cuts in capacity on domestic and European routes. Consequently, 31 Lufthansa aircraft and 17 aircraft operated by Lufthansa CityLine and regional partners were taken out of service.
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