Lufthansa leads the list of airlines with the most flight cancellations across Europe. According to a portal, a total of 6,803 flights were canceled in the first quarter – a share of almost six percent.
Lufthansa had the most flights canceled across Europe in the first quarter of the year. The German airline canceled 5.99 percent of its flights in the first three months of the year, as the legal service provider Flightright announced. In the same period in 2023 it was just under three percent.
“The current data clearly shows that Lufthansa is performing worst in Europe when it comes to flight cancellations,” said Jan-Frederik Arnold, Managing Director of Flightright. According to the portal, a total of 6,803 Lufthansa flights were canceled, one hundred percent more than in the previous year. One reason for this is the repeated strikes in the first quarter.
Most flight cancellations in Germany
The number of strikes has significantly exceeded the level of previous years, explained Flightright and in the process clearly criticized the airline: The strikes signaled “Lufthansa’s inability to get its internal problems under control.” The air travelers are the ones who suffer “from the grievances within the group, which apparently does not value its employees sufficiently despite record sales.”
The Dutch airline KLM is in second place in the ranking – but with a clear gap. Their share of cancellations is 2.27 percent (1,294 cancellations). Austrian Airlines follows with 2.25 percent. The second German airline Eurowings comes in fourth place (1.51 percent).
Germany also performed poorly in the airport ranking. The Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt am Main and Munich took the first two places. In Frankfurt, 5.7 percent of flights were canceled and in Munich 3.7 percent. Berlin and Düsseldorf took third and fourth place. Across Germany, 4.04 percent of the 167,675 flights were canceled in the first quarter. In Austria, which takes second place in the country ranking, it was 1.38 percent.
Red numbers due to “various strikes”
In recent months, both Lufthansa’s cabin and ground staff have stopped working. The company has now agreed on a new collective agreement with both negotiating unions. There were also flight cancellations because security staff at the airports also went on strike. However, this person is not employed by the airline.
At the beginning of the week, Lufthansa reported a quarterly loss of 849 million euros, citing “various strikes”. According to the information, the collective bargaining disputes will also impact your operating result in the second quarter from April to June – probably by 100 million euros.
Flightright managing director Arnold warned air travelers to be prepared for further delays and cancellations, especially during the peak travel season in summer. Strikes at other airlines cannot be ruled out. “In addition, the delivery problems of new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus could lead to bottlenecks in aircraft fleets, which really throw flight schedules into disarray,” he explained.