Lufthansa cuts 20,000 flights as soaring jet fuel costs hit Cork route

Lufthansa is trimming 20,000 short-haul flights from its schedule through October as the carrier moves to blunt the impact of soaring jet fuel costs.

The airline said the reduction amounts to less than 1% of total capacity across the group.

According to Lufthansa, the cuts will save roughly 40,000 metric tons of jet fuel, whose price has doubled since the outbreak of the Iran conflict.

The company said the revised timetable is aimed at reducing the number of loss-making short-haul services across the Lufthansa Group network.

As part of the changes, routes from Frankfurt to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszów in Poland, along with Stavanger in Norway, have been temporarily dropped from the current schedule, removing at least three destinations.

Ten other connections are being consolidated through alternative group hubs, including services involving Cork, Stuttgart, Gdańsk and Wroclaw.

In a statement, Cork Airport said the move will affect Lufthansa Cityline’s four-times-weekly Cork-Frankfurt service.

“For the period from now until the end of May, the suspension of several routes and reduction of frequencies is unfortunately unavoidable, including the Frankfurt-Cork service,” the Cork Airport statement said.

“Lufthansa advise that the full Cityline flight schedule Europe-wide is currently under review and therefore a reliable assessment of the impact cannot be provided at this stage,” it added.

Lufthansa Cityline began operating at Cork Airport in 2021, when the Frankfurt-Cork route launched with three flights a week before increasing to four weekly services last year.

The airline had been expected to run the route six times a week this year.

“Lufthansa advise passengers with bookings on Lufthansa Cityline to contact the airline directly for further information. We are working directly with Lufthansa mainline and other airlines to secure the timely re-instatement of the Frankfurt service,” the Cork Airport statement concluded.

Lufthansa said it expects fuel supplies to remain broadly stable for flights scheduled under the summer timetable.

“Lufthansa is pursuing a range of measures to this end, including the physical procurement of jet fuel as well as price hedging,” it added.