Lufthansa To Close Germanwings Division

The German airline Lufthansa announced today that it will be shutting down Germanwings, the low-cost airline division of it’s company due to the ongoing downturn in travel due to the worldwide crisis.

This closure deals another blow to the airline industry, which has already seen a huge downturn in passenger travel, along with parked aircraft and the unfortunate closure of other competing airlines in Europe and abroad.

Aside from the closure of Germanwings, Lufthansa announced it will retire 43 aircraft, of which 18 are large airliners.

• Airbus A380 (6)
• Airbus A340 (7)
• Boeing 747-400 (5)
• Airbus A320 (11)

The six Airbus A380 aircraft were due to be sold back to Airbus in 2022, however, the current situation saw the timeline shortened for the lifespan of the massive jet.

The retirement of the Airbus A340 and Boeing 747-400 were taken from both an environmental, as well as economical perspective due to their age and lifespan of the aircraft.

With the reduction in operating aircraft along with the closure of Germanwings, Lufthansa will be reducing its capacity at their core hubs in both Munich and Frankfurt.

Another announcement was also made that Eurowings, another subsidiary of Lufthansa, will be discontinuing their long haul flights and will phase out 10 of their Airbus A320 aircraft.