Lufthansa to ground 150 aircraft as coronavirus hits air travel

With the impact of coronavirus on travel and tourism sector deepening, airlines across the globe face the prospect of grounding their aircraft as travel demand plummets.

German flag carrier Lufthansa and its affiliates may ground 150 jets as flights to many key sectors covering cities in China, Iran, Italy and other countries remain suspended.

After assessing the situation in the wake of recent spread of coronavirus infections, Lufthansa Group has decided to continue to extend the suspension of flights between Germany, Switzerland, Austria and mainland China by Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines until April 24.

Flights to Tehran will remain suspended until April 30.

The airline major this week said that the availability of short- and medium-haul flights may be reduced by up to 25 percent in the coming weeks depending on further developments in the spread of coronavirus.

"Lufthansa Group airlines are also continuing to reduce their long-haul flight programme. Mathematically speaking, the number of Lufthansa Group long-haul aircraft not in operation will increase from 13 to up to 23," it said in a statement.

Back home, domestic carriers have also witnessed a drop in demand on routes between India and the Gulf & Middle East. They had earlier seen poor load across their flights to Southeast Asian destinations such as Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul.

In the wake of rising cases of coronavirus, two domestic carriers Air India and IndiGo had suspended their flights to China and Hong Kong. On many other southeast Asian routes, the airlines have reduced flight frequency.

"We have now seen advance bookings dropping for even Gulf countries. The drop is in the range of 10-20 per cent," an executive of a private airline said.

National carrier Air India has seen traffic falling across its network. Its flights to European cities have been affected especially after new cases of Coronavirus were reported in Italy. IANS