Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - There were no exceptional disruptions to air traffic at Frankfurt Airport on Friday. After the main customer Lufthansa canceled further connections, the operator Fraport reported regular operation in the terminals and on the airside. After a total of 122 cancellations, 1,270 take-offs and landings were planned for Friday at the largest German airport, said a spokesman for the operator Fraport. In the past few weeks, there had been major problems with ground handling of the jets at the hub.
A large part of the flight cancellations on Friday was attributable to Lufthansa, which specified preliminary information from the previous day. A further 770 flights in Munich and Frankfurt were then canceled in the week from this Friday up to and including Thursday (July 8-14). This figure is in addition to around 3,000 flights that Lufthansa had previously canceled at its two hubs for the months of July and August. On average, this already corresponded to a cancellation of 330 flights per week.
According to the information, Lufthansa intends to make a new decision in the coming week as to whether the program must continue to be reduced as much as it is currently. The measure is intended to stabilize the remaining flight plan. Above all, short flights in the late afternoon and evening will be cancelled. This is also associated with an increase in positioning flights in order to have crews and machines at the right place of action the next day. These machines take luggage but no passengers, as a Lufthansa spokeswoman explained. She could not name a number of these flights.
Lufthansa has also reopened the lower booking classes for its European flights. In the meantime, she had only offered tickets in both business and economy class at top prices. The aim of this shortage was to keep seats free for the numerous passengers who had to be rebooked on other flights after the cancellations. This has now happened and the tickets will be offered again in the usual framework.
