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Germany's Lufthansa cancels 2,000 more summer flights

The Local Germany
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Germany's Lufthansa cancels 2,000 more summer flights
A Lufthansa aeroplane taxis at Munich airport. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sven Hoppe

Germany's largest airline has announced yet another round of flight cancellations over summer.

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As travel operators in Germany continue to be plagued by staff shortages this summer, Lufthansa has announced that it will scrub an additional 2,000 flights from its July and August schedule.

A spokesperson for the airline told Handelsblatt that the cancellations would affect connections from two of Germany's largest airports - Frankfurt and Munich - and would mainly impact domestic routes and other short-haul flights to other countries in Europe.

There are "good alternatives" for passengers who want to travel to these destinations, the spokesperson added. Flights to popular holiday destinations will only be cancelled in exceptional cases.

The latest announcement is the third wave of flight cancellations by Lufthansa so far this summer.

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The struggling airline initially cancelled around 3,000 flights for the months of July and August and then scrapped another 770 connections for the weeks up to and including Thursday.

The extra 2,000 cancellations have been added over the coming six weeks. 

READ ALSO: Airport chaos in Europe: What are your rights if flights are delayed or cancelled?

The news comes amid ongoing issues at Germany's largest airports and airlines, with reports of passengers queuing at security for hours and being unable to collect their luggage on arrival.

The issues date back to the height of the pandemic, when thousands of members of staff were laid off as part of cost-cutting measures. In the Lufthansa Group alone, these layoffs were in the tens of thousands. 

The government has since drafted plans to make it easier for the affected businesses to hire temporary workers from abroad, but due to the time it takes to hire and train these additional staff, this has so far done little to mitigate the travel chaos.

According to the Lufthansa spokesperson, the latest round of scheduling changes should reduce the passengers numbers during morning and evening peaks.

At these times, the ground services at airports are often overloaded, which can cause delayed flights and even lead to luggage being left behind. 

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