Lufthansa Group said it will speed up fleet reductions, moving to withdraw the entire Lufthansa CityLine operation on 18 April as it responds to rapidly rising fuel costs and ongoing labor disputes.
The Lufthansa CityLine fleet now includes a dozen Airbus A319s and 15 CRJ-900s, although some additional aircraft are already in storage. The CRJ-900s had originally been due to leave service by the end of the year, but Lufthansa is pulling the retirement forward as it tries to cut costs more quickly.
The move lands in the middle of a broader shakeout across the German carrier’s long-haul and regional operations. At the conclusion of the IATA summer season in October, Lufthansa will withdraw its remaining four active Airbus A340-600s. In the same month, it will ground two Boeing 747-400 aircraft for the winter season, leaving eight in the fleet. The 747-400s are scheduled to end service in 2027.
Lufthansa said the pressure is being driven by expensive fuel and labor. The company said its passenger airlines hedge kerosene consumption at an above-average rate of around 80 percent based on crude oil prices, but the remaining 20 percent still has to be bought at significantly higher market prices. Lufthansa said that costly portion will be reduced by around 10 percent, a sign that the airline group is trying to squeeze out savings wherever it can.
The tension in the plan is that Lufthansa is still flying some of the aircraft it says it can no longer afford to keep in regular use. The CityLine retreat is being accelerated, but the carrier is also keeping older wide-body jets in service through the summer and only grounding part of its 747-400 fleet for winter. The cuts show how sharply the cost burden has moved from a planning issue to an operational one. For Lufthansa, the question is no longer whether to trim the fleet, but how fast it can do it without leaving too much capacity on the ground.
