Lufthansa Cuts Deeper Into Timetable; 5% of Flights Running

Frankfurt (dpa) - The coronavirus pandemic is hitting Germany's Lufthansa Group harder than previously thought, with just 5 per cent of scheduled flights running until April 19, the company said on Thursday, as airlines worldwide scaled back operations.

Around 700 of the group's 763 aeroplanes are staying on the ground for now, with Lufthansa's only remaining international connections running from Frankfurt, the flagship carrier's main hub, as well as three times a week from Zurich with its Swiss subsidiary.

In Munich, only short-haul flights operated by Lufthansa CityLine are running.

Swiss chief executive Thomas Kluehr said in Zurich that he cannot rule out grounding his entire fleet. Already on Monday, Switzerland's biggest airline will reduce its operations to a minimal mode, by flying only five of its 91 aircraft.

Border closures introduced across the globe due to the coronavirus pandemic have had a massive impact on the aviation industry, with major airlines forced to cancel flights en masse.

Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr said it was too early to predict the impact of the crisis on the company's performance this year. "The spread of the coronavirus has placed the entire global economy and also our company under an unprecedented state of emergency," he commented.

"The longer this crisis goes on, the more likely it becomes that the future of aviation cannot be ensured without state aid."

Spohr said Lufthansa Group has already applied for German government assistance to fund short-time work for 31,000 employees.

He said that while the company could cover employees' social security contributions even if there was no work for them, it would struggle to pay out more subsidies while keeping its full workforce of 140,000 people.

Lufthansa is currently assisting the German government in a major operation to repatriate tens of thousands of German tourists stranded abroad due to travel restrictions. The government has set aside up to 50 million euros (42.3 million dollars) for the so-called "airlift."

The crisis may also mean that the long-awaited Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport (BER), a project already beset by years of delays and controversies, faces further disruption.

Planned simulations may be postponed, and key inspectors at Germany's technical inspection association Tuev have been sent home from the airport construction site as a precaution against the virus' spread.

The company that operates Berlin's airports said it would provide state support to the city's airports due to the crisis. The supervisory board was in favour of such support, said Engelbert Luetke Daldrup, who heads the airport operator, without stating an amount.

Tui Germany, an Anglo-German travel and tourism company, said its staff would begin short-time work for six months starting on April 1. The firm plans to apply for state guarantees.

State support for the airline industry has also become a pressing topic in Norway, where short-haul flights are a vital mode of transport in the north of the country and along the coast.

On Thursday, the Norwegian government said it would provide loan guarantees for the country's airlines, the Economy and Transport ministries said.

They will give Norwegian access to 3 billion Norwegian kroner (267 million dollars) after the struggling low-cost airline cancelled 85 per cent of its flights and temporarily laid off about 90 per cent of its staff - about 7,300 employees - over "stagnating demand and enforced travel restrictions."

Norway will also give SAS a guarantee of 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner. Sweden and Denmark, each with a 15-per-cent stake in SAS, had already promised the airline guarantees adding up to 3 billion Swedish kronor (302 million dollars).

Norway's minority centre-right government and four main opposition parties had already agreed to cover more costs for routes operated by the regional airline Wideroe, for instance to northern Norway.

The routes, which even in normal circumstances are not commercially viable, are partly state-subsidized.

Major South-East Asia carrier Vietnam Airlines announced Thursday that it would began cancelling all international routes over the next week, including to Europe, Japan and Australia, state media reported.

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