Lufthansa was forced to cancel several scheduled domestic flights to Frankfurt from Thursday due to severe staff shortages at the airport. This announcement comes hours after Fraport, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, said it is working with airline partners to “stabilize operations at FRA in response to operational challenges.” Fraport also explained it was doing so by canceling individual flights as a “precautionary measure.”

Cancelations start on Thursday

A spokesperson for the German flag carrier told Reuters several domestic flights to Frankfurt would be affected by the staff shortages. Of course, these sudden cancelations will cause grave inconvenience to passengers booked on the affected flights. Therefore, Lufthansa will offer its customers replacement train tickets to help them reach their destination.

As part of today’s announcement, the airline said cancelations will start from April 7th and continue at least for the rest of the week until Sunday. More carriers flying to FRA are expected to announce flight cancelations soon, and as always, Simple Flying will be quick to report the latest.

At the time of writing, Lufthansa hasn’t disclosed specific details like the number of canceled flights. Nevertheless, Simple Flying has written to the airline seeking more information. This story will be updated when we receive a response.

UPDATE: 2022/04/07 12:17 EST BY DEVANSH MEHTA

Response from Lufthansa

"In addition to the known challenges of traffic peaks and corona measures, the ongoing staff shortage in ground handling of Fraport forces us to cancel some flights on short-haul routes from 7 April to 10 April. Passengers affected will be informed immediately and can travel to/from our hub in Frankfurt by train as an alternative. Furthermore, we ask our passengers to arrive at the airport in good time, especially during holiday periods (Easter holidays). We also recommend the use of digital services, online check-in and evening check-in. Hand luggage should also be checked in to avoid long waiting times at the security checkpoints."

Why is Frankfurt Airport short-staffed?

During the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic caused irreparable damage to the global aviation industry. Extremely low passenger demand meant several airlines, airports, and other companies operating in the aviation industry were forced to cut costs to stay afloat. And many decided to lay off hundreds of pilots, cabin crew, and ground handlers.

Now that the worst is finally behind us, the aviation industry seems to be on the horizon of a full bounce back to pre-pandemic levels. However, that will be an uphill battle as airport operators like Fraport are finding it difficult to hire enough staff to meet the sudden increase in travel demand, thereby causing cancelations like the ones announced today by Lufthansa. Airports need personnel for different roles, but the need for more ground handlers seems to be the highest at Frankfurt Airport.

Frankfurt isn’t the only airport plagued by staffing issues

Over the last month, several countries dropping all COVID requirements has acted as a catalyst for the sudden increase in travel demand. As crossing international borders becomes easier, more people are motivated to travel for vacation or business. For that reason, Frankfurt Airport isn’t the only one affected by grave staffing problems.

As Simple Flying reported, the situation is fairly similar at Manchester Airport. Several passengers faced long queues at security checks and other checkpoints due to a staff crunch. The situation was so bad that the airport’s management had to ask firefighters to help with baggage handling activities.

What do you make of the flight cancelations announced by Lufthansa today? Do you think airports are doing enough to cope with the surge in travel demand due to the Easter holidays? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Reuters