The Lufthansa Group’s airlines have extended their repatriation
flight schedules through 17 May as national and international travel restrictions
put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus continue.
Originally, the special return flights were due to cease on 3
May, but these will be extended until the 17th and then reduced
further, with some cancellations being implemented from the 4th.
The schedule changes mean Lufthansa will only offer 15
weekly long-haul connections – three times a week each from Frankfurt to Newark
and Chicago in the US, Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Tokyo. The three weekly services
to Montreal will be cancelled. Lufthansa is also offering up to 36 daily
connections from Frankfurt to key cities in Germany and the rest of Europe.
From Munich, there will only be six daily connections to domestic German cities
from 4 May onward.
Meanwhile, Swiss will continue three weekly long-haul
flights to Newark from Zurich and Geneva, as well as a “substantially reduced”
timetable for short and medium-haul destinations in Europe.
Eurowings will provide basic services at Dusseldorf,
Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne with a “skeleton programme” offering domestic
German flights and connections to selected European destinations, according to
Lufthansa Group.
The group has closed its Germanwings subsidiary in a cost-cutting measure.
As previously reported, passengers whose flights have been
cancelled or who can no longer make their scheduled departure can rebook for a
later date – until 30 April 2021 – so long as their change is made by 31 August
2020. Customers who rebook a flight taking place before 31 December 2020 will
receive an additional €50 toward the value of their original ticket in the form
of a flight voucher.
In addition to these changes, Lufthansa will be temporarily decommissioning its Airbus A340-600 fleet over the coming weeks, with the aircraft due to be parked in northeastern Spain for at least the next one to one-and-a-half years, according to the airline. This follows its previously announced plans to permanently retire a number of aircraft from its fleet even after the coronavirus pandemic is over.