Lufthansa is considering grounding aircraft in response to market disruptions caused by the war in Iran.
The airline is preparing several different emergency plans based on fluctuations in jet fuel prices and customer demand, CEO Carsten Spohr told employees earlier this week. One contingency would ground up to 40 aircraft, or about 5% of Lufthansa’s capacity.
German business newspaper Handelsblatt was first to report the carrier’s preparations.
It was not immediately clear which routes would be affected if Lufthansa followed through on the plan.
According to Bloomberg, the airline is bracing not just for higher fuel prices but the possibility of extremely limited supply in the near future. Oil tankers are once again passing through the hotly contested Strait of Hormuz to Iran’s south, but daily traffic is a fraction of prewar levels, keeping global prices high. Iran could effectively close the waterway at any time by again launching missiles and drones at ships, or simply threatening to.
And complications expand beyond the strait. Iran is bombing oil infrastructure in U.S.-allied countries such as Saudi Arabia, and producers in Asia are increasingly pulling back their output because their oil cannot reach customers.
About half of Europe’s jet fuel imports come from producers in the Middle East, leaving airlines there particularly exposed to wartime volatility.
As of Thursday morning, oil prices had climbed to $112 per barrel.
Earlier this week, Lufthansa Group announced a significant expansion of its airlines’ summer schedules, with increased service to destinations such as Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. The company also signaled it will increase capacity to southern Europe, specifically Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece.
