German airline Lufthansa will reduce its capacity for the long term, and said it will take years for global demand for air travel to return to levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The firm said it will permanently decommission 18 long-haul aircraft — six Airbus A380s and seven A340-600s as well as five Boeing 747-400s —and will withdraw 11 Airbus A320s from short-haul operations. It will reduce its capacity in Frankfurt and Munich.
The firm's subsidiaries will also withdraw aircraft — three Airbus A340-300s at Lufthansa Cityline, and 10 Airbus 320s at Eurowings. Lufthansa said it will reduce long-haul business at the latter, and will discontinue its Germanwings business entirely. It will intensify existing restructuring programmes at Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, and will delay aircraft orders for Swiss International Air Lines.
The firm said it has terminated all wet-lease arrangements that it holds with other airlines.
Lufthansa's moves are among the most severe undertaken by any airline in the face of reduced global air travel arising from the coronavirus pandemic. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has called this the industry's "gravest crisis", and jet fuel prices are at 17-year lows.
