Lufthansa Cargo faces delays after IT outage

German carrier Lufthansa Group is untangling a mess after an IT outage in Frankfurt caused major delays to passenger and cargo flights Wednesday afternoon. Fiber optic cables belonging to a telecom service provider were damaged during construction work at Frankfurt Airport (FRA) causing the failure, spokeswoman Katharina Wambach told Air Cargo Next . Hundreds of flights, including freighters, were diverted, and the airport was closed for a short time. There were additional cancellations, delays and detours, which added to the delay. Officials worked for several hours to restore IT operations and many of its systems are functional again, Wambach said. “ Lufthansa Cargo had initially issued an immediate acceptance stop for freight shipments today, especially at Frankfurt and Munich airports,” Wambach said. “This acceptance stop has been lifted thanks to initial stabilization measures. Customers can deliver their freight at these stations again with immediate effect. However, processing and transport delays are still to be expected due to the heavy load in the system.” Due to the setback, several freighters diverted to other airports. However, as the IT system reactivates, Lufthansa officials are examining a plan to transfer affected shipment back to Frankfurt via road feeder services, Wambach said. “Given the complexity of this IT outage and overall impact on the flight operations, the immediate global booking freeze for cargo shipments to and via Frankfurt and Munich up to and including Feb. 17 remains unchanged,” Wambach said. Officials from Frankfurt Airport did not immediately respond to inquiries Wednesday evening. IT restored, but looming strike to affect air cargo By Thursday morning, IT operations returned to normal with systems fully restored, Lufthansa officials said. “The effects of yesterday’s LH system failure primarily affected passenger traffic. However, since German ATC had temporarily declared zero landing capacity for FRA, no cargo aircraft were able to land, which is why there were single delays,” said Maria Linden, Lufthansa Group’s U.S.-based media spokeswoman. “The outbounds ran without any problems. Operations have restarted early this morning without any major disruption and run smoothly by now.” However, while crossing off one snafu, officials are prepared to deal with another. Freight shipments will be further affected by a planned daylong strike at numerous German airports. “ The overall situation is stabilized by now. However, the flight schedule of Lufthansa Cargo is being adjusted for the coming days,” FRA’s Wambach said. “In addition to the aftermath of yesterday’s IT outage, the German trade union ver.di has called for a daylong strike at several German airports, starting on Friday morning, Feb. 17. This will have a significant impact on the entire German air traffic and lead to cancellations and delays of flights.” Despite the strike, expected freight shipments will not be diverted to other airports, officials said. “The flight program is being adjusted in terms of rescheduling and also canceling freighter flights,” Wambach said. “However, we plan to continue transporting relief goods to Turkey this week despite the limited staff available at the airport as these operations have been priori tized.” Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect new developments.

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