Lufthansa Group extends reduced flight schedule till 17 May

Germany's Lufthansa Group has announced that it will be continuing with its reduced flight schedule until 17 May at the least, which will be reduced 'further'. The group today announced that the repatriation flight schedule will be extended from its originally-planned finishing date of 3 May.

Lufthansa Airbus A321neo registered D-AIEC. Photo by Anselm Ranta │ AeroNewsX

Described as 'inevitable', Lufthansa itself will be reducing its current schedule which had already been greatly trimmed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, the airline has not completely suspended operations.

The German flag carrier will operate just 15 weekly long-haul connections and, from Frankfurt, up to 36 daily short/medium-haul flights. From Munich, a further 6 daily flights will be offered, all to domestic destinations within Germany.

The new schedule includes three weekly rotations to Newark, Chicago, Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Tokyo. The carrier's thrice weekly flight to Montreal, which continues to operate despite the coronavirus pandemic, will be suspended. As for the short/medium-haul services from Frankfurt, they will connect the Germany city to key European cities in addition to various domestic flights.

Likewise, Eurowings will maintain a similar network, connecting Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne with select European and German cities. Meanwhile, Brussels Airlines announced on 6 April that it would extend its temporary cessation of operations. The carrier now says it won't restart operations before 15 May. As for Austrian Airlines, it has also extended the suspension of its operations for a further two weeks from 3 May till 17 May.

SWISS on the other hand continues to operate a number of services and will continue to fly under its reduced timetable until 17 May. This includes services to a 'select number of European routes from Zurich and Geneva' as well as three weekly long-haul connections between Zurich and Newark.

Air Dolomiti hasn't, as of yet, announced any further changes. The carrier suspended operations on 18 March until 19 April. On behalf of Lufthansa the carrier has been operating a link between Milan Malpensa and Frankfurt as well as certain repatriation flights. AeroNewsX has reached out to Air Dolomiti for further clarification on how these changes affect the carrier.