Lufthansa Cancels Flights as Pilots Call in Sick

Frankfurt — A bout of sickness and concerns about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has left German airline Lufthansa struggling to keep planes in the sky for the next few weeks.

A spokesperson said on Thursday that the airline had to cancel a dozen intercontinental flights during the Christmas period because a number of its pilots are off sick.

Particularly affected are services flying to Boston, Houston and Washington through December 26, with only a few volunteers able to jump in and take over routes. The representative said those flights could, at least, be more easily rebooked. There were also flights to Japan that had to be cancelled.

The company planned "a very large buffer. But that is not sufficient considering the extremely high sickness rate," he added.

Officials said they did not know if Omicron was responsible for the illnesses. But concerns about the new variant of the disease have prompted Lufthansa to slash about 10 per cent of its planned flights for the next few weeks, according to chief executive Carsten Spohr in a media interview.

"Starting in mid-January through February, we've seen a sharp drop in bookings. That means we have to cancel about 33,000 flights from our winter plans, or about 10 per cent," he said in comments to the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung.

He noted that a lot of the problem was lack of customers in key markets such as Germany, Austria, Belgium and Switzerland.

Many of the absences are hitting crews for long-distance flights on Airbus A330s and A340s through early January.

Aero.de, a website focusing on German aviation, posted excerpts from a letter circulated by Lufthansa officials warning that the shortages could be severe.

"We don't see ourselves in the position to staff all routes because of increased sickness rates. Crew planners are working on scenarios that involve thinning out flight plans."

The airline's problems don't end with staff calling in sick. Several crew members have also had to go into quarantine due to the pandemic, further complicating flight planning.

The wave of sick calls comes amid talks between Cockpit, a pilots' union, and Lufthansa about corporate reorganizations that might cut certain well-paid piloting jobs. There is the possibility of strikes in the summer. The timing of the latest rash of illness prompted online speculation that pilots might be calling in sick as a way to put pressure on the company.

The cancellations have also called into question Lufthansa's promises to come up with emergency plans amid the coronavirus crisis. It had promised to keep reserve crew on hand and to introduce more flexibility into planning.

This Christmas travel season is shaping up to be a strong one for carriers operating in Europe. Some are reporting double-digit growth in flights offered, including Easyjet, which is operating 41 per cent more flights than two weeks ago, and Wizz Air, which has 75 per cent more flights this week than a week ago, according to data from flight safety organization Eurocontrol.

Ryanair, SAS and Wizz are also offering more connections than they did for the same time period in 2019, before the pandemic hit Europe. Meanwhile, Lufthansa is down 21 per cent relative to 2019, though it recently managed a 1-per-cent improvement compared to two weeks prior.

But Lufthansa isn't the only airline whose schedule is being disrupted by sickness. SAS had to cancel about 30 flights on Tuesday also due to staff sicknesses.

But Condor, a Lufthansa rival, reports no such problems.

"We're not seeing any elevated sickness levels," said a spokesperson in Frankfurt.