The Lufthansa Group is set to restrict the sale of flights in July in an effort to provide a stable flight schedule after hundreds of Lufthansa flights were cancelled last month due to staff shortages.
Europe’s largest airline group, which includes Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, is preparing for another wave of cancellations this week at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, according to a Reuters report, which has sent ticket prices soaring. Even the cheapest routes, like London to Frankfurt, now cost upwards of €500.
Christoph Carnier, president of the Association of German Travel Management (VDR), said members have expressed concern over the ongoing air travel disruption and added that rising prices are exacerbating the already complex post-pandemic travel landscape.
“It is currently impossible to assess how great the damage caused by the flight cancellations, delays and chaos at the airports is for the business travel industry,” he said. “What we are seeing right now, in addition to the chaos at the airports, are significantly rising prices in everything from rail to rental cars to lodging. These are well above the pre-crisis level from 2019, so the cost of business travel will rise extremely in 2022, even if the number of trips is still below the pre-crisis level.”
With travel managers now spending more time claiming ticket refunds, Carnier criticised the air travel industry’s advance payment model, but applauded Lufthansa’s ‘Pay as you fly’ programme for corporate customers.
“This costs a premium, but saves companies an enormous amount of reimbursement and billing processes afterwards. Especially now it makes sense with the numerous cancellations and rebooking. We at the VDR would therefore like to see this model become established throughout the industry,” he said.
Carnier added the association is looking to conduct an ‘open dialogue’ between travel managers and airline carriers, including Deutsche Lufthansa AG, with a dedicated webcast planned for members.