Lufthansa and SAS cancel flights over Christmas: too many pilots sick

Because of numerous sick pilots, Lufthansa cancelled several flights over the holidays. There are also quarantine obligations. Other airlines are also suffering from a lack of staff.

Because a number of pilots have reported being sick at Lufthansa, some intercontinental flights will be cancelled over the Christmas period. From December 23 to 26, the main focus will be on connections across the North Atlantic, on which a total of six long-haul flights would have to be cancelled by Sunday. It is in this traffic area that passengers can most easily be rebooked. A return flight to Japan has also been cancelled.

“We planned with a very large reserve. But that’s not enough for the extremely high sickness rate,” said a Lufthansa spokesman.

Lufthansa is not alone with the shortage of personnel. The Scandinavian airline SAS also announced yesterday that it had to cancel flights.

On Tuesday, SAS cancelled just over 30 flights in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. On Wednesday, SAS cancelled nine departures from Arlanda, including to Paris, Oslo and Malmö. On Thursday, four departures from Arlanda are cancelled. “We have a general increase in sick leave just like in the rest of society with staff who are ill or have someone in the household who is ill, and that is the explanation,” says Freja Annamatz, press manager at SAS.

At the same time, long queues are noticeable at the airport – a problem that made SAS passengers miss departures this weekend.

Also in Belgium today, Brussels Airlines had to cancel its flight to Monrovia, Liberia, at the last minute, when all passengers had already checked in because no pilot was available. Another flight was also cancelled by lack of pilots, to Entebbe, Uganda.