travellingAn IT system failure at Lufthansa forced Germany’s air traffic control agency to divert or cancel all flights away from the country’s busiest Frankfurt airport. A problem with Lufthansa’s computer systems caused major disruption at the German airline and its aircraft could no longer depart from Frankfurt Airport, reported news agencies. This meant no parking positions were available for other aircraft.
Frankfurt Airport said that technical problems at Lufthansa were causing “flight disruptions and cancellations.”
“Please check the status of your flight before traveling to the airport and allow extra time for your journey,” the airport said. “We also recommend that you check in as early as possible for your flight.”
Here’s all you need to know about the disruption:
- Thousands of Lufthansa passengers were left stranded on Wednesday after a group-wide IT system failure, which the German airline blamed on underground engineering works at a railway station in Frankfurt cutting several fibre optic cables.
- A Deutsche Telekom spokesperson said that four broadband fibre cables had been damaged at a Deutsche Bahn railtrack by concrete drills during work that was neither commissioned by nor conducted by the company, reported Bloomberg.
- While Lufthansa — which has around 700 aircraft — did not immediately specify how many flights were impacted globally, but Frankfurt and Munich airports appeared among those most affected.
- All of Lufthansa’s domestic flights were cancelled and passengers were urged to switch to alternative forms of travel, reported German news agency dpa.
- Germany’s air traffic control agency spokesperson Robert Ertler said all plane parking spots in Frankfurt were full because passengers and crews are unable to board the airline’s flights.
- Ertler said that the incoming planes are being diverted to alternative airports” such as as Munich, Nuremberg and Duesseldorf.
- Lufthansa expects the repair work to be completed by Wednesday afternoon (local time) and stabilisation of flight operations by Wednesday evening.
(With inputs from agencies)
