The failure of a telecommunications line in the Frankfurt am Main area paralysed Lufthansa Group’s computer systems this morning and caused massive flight cancellations, according to the company itself.
Booking, check-in and boarding programmes were affected, making it impossible for most operations to continue at Frankfurt am Main Airport (FRA), Lufthansa’s main hub.
The problem began when fibre optic cables belonging to the provider Deutsche Telekom were damaged during repair work on a railway line. The situation led to a widespread disruption of the company’s systems at the air terminal.
Other companies in the area are also affected, and alternative lines are still being overloaded. «Due to the considerable damage and the situation at the construction site, repairs will be extremely difficult», Deutsche Telekom said.
As a result, all scheduled departures and arrivals have been cancelled temporarily. Schedules at Munich (MUC) and Berlin (BER) airports were partially affected.
Massive delays and cancellations
Lufthansa asked all customers to check the current status of their flights before leaving for the airport. «However, we generally recommend that passengers in Frankfurt do not travel to the airport at this time», the airline said. In addition, the company noted that rebookings on other flights were also limited as a result of the system failure.
Lufthansa flights in European airspace – yesterday vs today 11:00 UTC.
Many Lufthansa Group flights are delayed or cancelled because of an IT outage. Fog is also affecting flights to and from Frankfurt.https://t.co/TSlpyHpD4R pic.twitter.com/YNVTQU7qGI
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 15, 2023
German air traffic control diverted incoming flights to other airports, such as Düsseldorf (DUS) or Cologne (CGN), to avoid further congestion at Frankfurt due to the large number of aircraft on the ground. This resulted in missed connections for many transfer passengers.
Initially, all domestic flights had to be suspended and Lufthansa asked affected passengers to consider the train as an alternative means of transport. The company assured that it is working to solve the problem and informed that its crisis team will meet to find a definitive solution.
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