Lufthansa Group will remove 20,000 short-haul flights from its schedule through October amid concerns about a looming jet fuel shortage in Europe.
To achieve the cuts, the company has shuttered its Lufthansa CityLine regional subsidiary, which had hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.
The cuts will amount to less than 1% of Lufthansa Group's capacity, said the company. Lufthansa Group airlines include Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, ITA, Brussels Airlines and leisure brands Eurowings and Discover Airlines.
The move comes as the Iran war, and the ongoing uncertainty related to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, has airlines examining available fuel supply. On April 16, International Energy Agency director Fatih Birol warned in an interview with the Associated Press that Europe had approximately six weeks of remaining jet fuel supplies.
In a statement Tuesday, Lufthansa said that it expects a largely stable fuel supply for the remaining flights it has scheduled for the summer.
"Lufthansa is pursuing a range of measures to this end, including the physical procurement of jet fuel as well as price hedging," the company said.
Last week, Lufthansa Group said it would accelerate retirements of its last four Airbus A340-600 planes and its last two Boeing 747-400s. Both are ageing aircraft models with poor fuel efficiency.