Shortage of staff: Lufthansa cancels another 2200 flights

Dramatic staff shortages on board and on the ground – Lufthansa must therefore cancel another 2,200 flights in the summer. Mainly domestic German and European flights are affected. Classic holiday destinations should be excluded.

Because of the staff shortages at the airports, Lufthansa is canceling even more flights. The airline will take another 2,200 out of a total of around 80,000 flights in the summer at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs from the system, Lufthansa said. 900 flights have already been canceled for July.

This primarily affects domestic German and European flights, but not the classic holiday destinations, which are well occupied during the holiday season. Connections are not only canceled on weekends, but also during the week. “In addition, there may also be changes in flight times,” it said.

Lufthansa and other airlines are canceling flights in advance and are offering alternative flights or domestic rail connections to avoid chaos.

Little staff meets high demand

Air transport is struggling with staff shortages in the high season, especially for ground services, but also to some extent for flight attendants. According to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), around 7,200 skilled workers are currently missing at German airports. At the same time, there are “no more reserves on the labor market” to fill these gaps in air and ground personnel.

Between 2019 and 2021 there was a drop of 6,000 employees in service staff, plus 1,200 ground staff in technical air traffic operations. Now that flying is possible again, few staff meet high demand and there are significantly more vacancies than unemployed, the IW explained.