Lufthansa Group Notes End of Repatriation Flights

Lufthansa’s first flight parked at the gate after an eleven hour flight from Frankfurt to Austin. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Mateen Kontoravdis)

[ Top Story ]April 21, 2020 12:42 am ET

By Ian McMurtry

Lufthansa Group has announced the conclusion of its repatriation flight program in the wake of the COVID-19 fallout. The multi-national, German-owned flag carrier has seen the over month-long program bring roughly 90,000 passengers back to Central Europe onboard on of its various airlines.

The evacuation of Germans aboard began back on March 13 and has consisted of 437 flights operating between 106 airports across the globe. Lufthansa’s part in the program ended with the arrival of a Lufthansa flight which touched down this week following a flight from Lima, Peru. Lufthansa noted that some of these routes were special just for this location, resulting in Lufthansa Group carriers appearing in unusual locations compared to their pre-coronavirus route map. The airline group’s subsidiaries still have 11 flights to operate within the coming days before the project reaches its termination.

Of the 88,000 passengers who were rescued in the face of the pandemic, over 42,000 were brought home on Lufthansa equipment. Next highest was Eurowings with 18,000, Swiss and Edelweiss combined for 14,000 and the rest via Austrian, Brussels and Air Dolomiti.

The outreach to these countries resulted in both airlines and airports noting the unusual arrivals on social media as the repatriation flights occurred.

Yesterday another exceptional repatriation charter landed in Vienna: a triangular flight to Santiago (sunny), Buenos Aires (cloudy) and back to Vienna (sunny again). The last leg from EZE to VIE alone took 13 hours. Watch the playback here: https://t.co/gOxokiyRfX @flightradar24 pic.twitter.com/YO4kMeNQNp

— Austrian Airlines (@_austrian) April 2, 2020

Furthermore, Lufthansa Group is taking part in cargo flights for relief work. The airline family noted that 94 cargo flights have occurred in the past month with more coming as COVID-19 continues to maintain a firm grip on Europe. These flights have included modifying passenger aircraft into cargo haulers by stripping out seats for additional space in the aircraft.

For the remainder of the Lufthansa fleet, the family of airlines has seen massive airline groundings as the demand for regular commercial air travel plummeted in the face of coronavirus. The airlines have also noted this on their social media pages, including Austrian who has noted this grounding on its page.

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Ian McMurtry

Although Ian McMurtry was never originally an avgeek, he did enjoy watching US Airways aircraft across western Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. He lived along the Pennsylvania Railroad and took a liking to trains but a change of scenery in the mid-2000s saw him shift more of an interest into aviation. He would eventually express this passion by taking flying lessons in mid-Missouri and joining AirlineGeeks in 2013. Now living in Wichita, Kansas, Ian is in college majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in business administration at Wichita State University.

Author

Ian McMurtry

Although Ian McMurtry was never originally an avgeek, he did enjoy watching US Airways aircraft across western Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. He lived along the Pennsylvania Railroad and took a liking to trains but a change of scenery in the mid-2000s saw him shift more of an interest into aviation. He would eventually express this passion by taking flying lessons in mid-Missouri and joining AirlineGeeks in 2013. Now living in Wichita, Kansas, Ian is in college majoring in aerospace engineering and minoring in business administration at Wichita State University.
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