Lufthansa cuts planned summer growth across EX-YU markets

Lufthansa has cancelled or downsized its originally scheduled plans to expand operations on a number of markets across the former Yugoslavia. Cuts have been made, to varying degrees, on select services to Belgrade, Ljubljana, Skopje, Zagreb, and Sarajevo. Lufthansa has thinned out its schedule due to engine problems affecting part of its medium-haul Airbus fleet, the airline said. Apart from services to former Yugoslav markets, the carrier will completely suspend operations from Frankfurt to Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Friedrichshafen, Linz, and Innsbruck, as well as from Munich to Leipzig. In total, some 100 weekly flights have been cut from the summer network as 64 aircraft in the Lufthansa Group are affected by engine issues by the Pratt & Whitney manufacturer.

In Belgrade, the German carrier has cancelled plans to add a third daily flight between Munich and Belgrade. Instead, it will continue to maintain two daily flights, or fourteen weekly services, instead of the initially planned 21. The carrier has also cancelled plans to add a third daily rotation between Frankfurt and the Serbian capital. Instead, it will run fourteen to eighteen weekly services between the two cities this coming summer, depending on the month. In Ljubljana, Lufthansa will push back and reduce planned growth on its flights from Munich. In April, the carrier will maintain daily instead of a double daily service on the route. This will increase to twelve to thirteen weekly flights from May onwards, depending on the month, which is still down on the initially planned fourteen weekly rotations.

Lufthansa’s service between Frankfurt and Skopje, which was launched last year, will be reduced from May. The carrier will maintain nine weekly flights on the route, depending on the month, instead of the ten weekly rotations which have been operating since the service was inaugurated. In Zagreb, flights from Munich will be reduced to thirteen weekly from May, instead of the initially planned fourteen weekly, while there will be a notable capacity reduction on the Frankfurt route, although frequencies will remain unchanged on its original plan at seven weekly flights. In total, the carrier will shave off just over 530 seats per week on its Frankfurt - Zagreb - Frankfurt operation from April compared to its initially scheduled capacity as it will operate fewer flights with the A320-family fleet, utilising the Embraers E190s instead. Finally, the carrier’s Frankfurt - Sarajevo service will be increased from eight to nine weekly flights on select months, instead of ten. The nine weekly rotations will operate in April, June, August, and October, while ten weekly rotations will run in May, July and September. Changes for all of the abovementioned services remain possible.