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Lufthansa
today announced cuts in
the airline's capacity on intercontinental routes, stating the cuts are
in response to the sharp fall in passenger bookings, particularly on routes to America and
Asia. Additional services scheduled by the airline for the summer timetable
are to be postponed from 30 March. As a result, the long-range fleet will be reduced by seven aircraft. The majority of cuts will affect services to North America,
which Lufthansa says 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
Lufthansa services to the Middle East will operate as normal, except for flights to Dammam and Kuwait, which have
been suspended for security reasons.
Lufthansa
has said further capacity reductions may be necessary on short and long-haul
routes, and that any further decisions will be taken at short notice and based on
customer demand.
In February
of this year the Lufthansa 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. |
