The planned grounding of several aircraft operated by Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline has no impact on the airports in Dresden and Leipzig at present. This was stated by a spokesperson for Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG on request. He would not provide any further details. The "Leipziger Volkszeitung" and the "Sächsischer Zeitung" had previously reported on this. Cityline previously played an important role in feeder traffic to the Frankfurt and Munich hubs.
Lufthansa had announced that it would be reducing its fleet. The company cited the significant rise in kerosene prices and the costs of the ongoing labor disputes as the reason for the cuts.
As a first step, the Group plans to ground the 27 older Cityline Canadair CRJ jets from this Saturday. The subsidiary is to be closed down completely. The jets are nearing the end of their technical service life and have comparatively high operating costs, Lufthansa announced. This could reduce further losses for the loss-making airline.
Especially inefficient aircraft would be taken out of service prematurely so that less kerosene would have to be purchased on the free market. The kerosene consumption of the Lufthansa Group's passenger airlines is hedged at an above-average level of around 80 percent based on the price of crude oil.
