Ranging from security personnel to indeed pilots — staff shortages were on display throughout the entire aviation branche in recent months. Queues got longer, flights were missed, and flights were cancelled. In the US, approximately 116,000 flights were cancelled. While Europe became renowned in the summer of 2022 for doubling that number and being officially dubbed ‘the worst place to travel’.
Lufthansa has cancelled around 7,000 flights for the busy summer due to staff shortages and ground crew union strikes.
According to Bloomberg, Lufthansa has cancelled around 7,000 flights for the busy summer due to staff shortages and ground crew union strikes. It also notes that the airline’s pilots’ union has voted in favour of walkouts, but hasn’t yet decided whether to hold them as pay talks continue. The Group posted an operating profit (before interest and taxes) of 393 euros for the second quarter.
‘Toughing it out’
Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, ‘toughing it out’ became the go-to phrase among airlines. Lufthansa Group, consisting of its namesake Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and low-cost carrier German Wings were said to have cut a sector-leading third of its workforce to around 100,000 people at that time. Then, when the travel industry rapidly rose back to the pre-pandemic levels, the airline was short of cabin crew, ground staff and pilots.Â
10,000 new hires by 2024
While Lufthansa initially axed 38,000 people, the group steadily looked at bringing in more personnel. The records show that Lufthansa Group lost a net number of 7,000 people between Q1 of 2021 and Q1 of 2022. Leaving the total number of employees at approximately 104,000. Now the company plans to increase that number by 10,000 employees by 2024. In a presentation announcing the group’s second quarter earnings, CEO Carsten Spohr said that Lufthansa plans to hire 5,000 new employees in the second half of 2022, and a similar number in 2023.Â
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