Lufthansa removing 25 planes from service

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Lufthansa, the second-largest airline in Europe, has revealed that it will remove 25 of its aircraft from service this year as the economic downturn continues to negatively impact demand for air travel.

The German carrier will ground five planes in its European fleet from July and two long-haul aircraft in September, according to CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber. Lufthansa has already grounded 18 planes in 2009.

In May, airline passenger numbers dropped by 9.3 per cent, figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show. The association indicated that the decline in demand may have finally reached bottom.

Lufthansa said it is trying to maintain routes to that it remains attractive to air travellers, and is cutting seat capacity by 1.6 per cent overall.

The carrier is shifting planes to routes that are seeing increased demand, according to Roland Busch, the finance and human resources head at Lufthansa’s passenger unit. New services have been added to oil-producing regions in Africa, and in Italy, the Lufthansa Italia division was established.

Up to 300 million euros in cost reductions are targeted this year as Lufthansa phases out its Airbus SAS A300- 600 aircraft, cuts back on ground staff and reduces spending on supplies and marketing, Busch added.

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