Lufthansa curtails recruitment in response to coronavirus

In order to counteract the economic impact of the coronavirus at an early stage, Lufthansa is implementing several measures to lower costs: among other things, all new hires planned for the airline with the crane will be reassessed, suspended or deferred to a later date. Lufthansa is also offering employees unpaid leave effective immediately.

• Budget reduction in the administrative areas
• Offer of unpaid leave for employees
• Expansion of options for part-time work planned
• New recruitment suspended

Furthermore, an expansion of part-time work options in the context of collective bargaining agreements is currently being examined.

All planned flight attendant and station personnel training courses as of April 2020 will not be carried out. For the time being, the participants of courses that are already in progress will not be hired. However, the aim remains to be able to offer the participants employment contracts in the long term. In the administrative areas, the core brand Lufthansa will reduce its project volume by 10% and the budget for material costs by 20%.

Following a thorough assessment of all available information on the effects of the novel coronavirus, Lufthansa Group had already cancelled all flights by Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines to/from mainland China until the end of the winter flight schedule on 28 March. Due to the current demand situation for flights to and from Hong Kong, capacity adjustments have already been made on this route, and additional frequency adjustments to and from Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich are planned. In purely mathematical terms, 13 Lufthansa Group aircraft are currently on the ground.

It is not yet possible to estimate the expected impact of the current developments on earnings. The group will be commenting on this matter at the press briefing for the annual results on 19 March.