Lufthansa plans to reduce fleet size to 650 aircraft in 2023

German carrier Lufthansa has revealed plans to reduce its fleet to 650 aircraft in the next two years.

The move is part of the company’s plans to reduce cost through restructuring following the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Until the end of 2019, the Lufthansa Group fleet comprised 763 aircraft.

In addition to the fleet reduction, the company plans to cut additional 10,000 jobs or compensate equivalent wage costs in Germany.

Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said: “With a smaller, more agile and more sustainable Lufthansa Group, we want to maintain our leading position worldwide and secure the jobs of around 100,000 employees in the long term.”

During the first quarter of this year, Lufthansa plans to restrict the average monthly operating cash drain, excluding working capital changes, capital expenditure and one-off and restructuring expenses, to approximately €300m.

Last year, Lufthansa’s revenue fell to €13.6bn as passenger traffic dropped due to the pandemic and the associated travel restrictions.

The company plans to increase its capacity to 40% to 50% of 2019 levels this year.

Deutsche Lufthansa chief financial officer Remco Steenbergen said: “Thanks to our recent financing measures, we have sufficient liquidity to withstand a market environment that remains difficult. The next step is to strengthen our balance sheet and reduce debt.

“In doing so, we will reduce our costs through a successful restructuring. Our crisis and cost management has taken effect much faster than originally planned. At the same time, our business has recovered more slowly than we had initially hoped. In addition to repaying the government stabilisation funds, the goal of our financial strategy is for the financial markets to re-evaluate our creditworthiness to investment grade in the medium terms.”