Lufthansa axes 20,000 summer flights as European carriers brace for jet fuel squeeze

Lufthansa Group is cutting roughly 20,000 short-haul flights from its summer schedule through October, a capacity adjustment that lays bare the scale of the jet fuel shock now moving through European aviation.

The German group, which also owns SWISS, Austrian, Brussels Airlines and ITA, said on 21 April it would scrap less profitable routes out of Frankfurt and Munich, saving around 40,000 tonnes of fuel. Capacity at Zurich, Vienna and Brussels will be expanded on surviving routes. The first 120 daily cancellations took effect on 20 April, with ten destinations previously served from Frankfurt or Munich, including Cork, Gdańsk, Ljubljana and Wrocław, now re-routed through other group hubs.

European jet fuel prices hit a record $1,840 per metric tonne in early April after the US and Israeli-led strikes on Iran on 28 February triggered a near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Crude has more than doubled, with jet fuel climbing from roughly $99 a barrel at end-February to as high as $209 by early April. Europe, which imports about a third of its jet fuel from the Middle East, is the most exposed of the major aviation markets. The International Energy Agency's Fatih Birol warned on 16 April that the continent had only six weeks of supply left.

Lufthansa is better cushioned than most, having hedged about 80 per cent of its 2026 fuel at pre-conflict prices, though it has paused new hedging. Others are less fortunate. SAS, unhedged entering the year, cancelled around 1,000 April flights; Ryanair has flagged supply risks from May; Italy's ENAC reported shortages at four airports over Easter; TUI has trimmed its full-year EBIT guidance to between €1.1bn and €1.4bn. US jet fuel shipments to Europe are now running close to 200,000 barrels a day, replacing lost Gulf volumes at a premium the summer schedule can no longer absorb.