German flag carrier Lufthansa to reduce fleet, shutter low-cost affiliate Germanwings, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany - 08 Apr 2020
The engines of a Lufthansa airplane are covered with plastic foil as the aircraft remains grounded on the northwest side of the Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 08 April 2020. Several out-of-service Lufthansa planes are indefinitely parked on the airport's northwest runway as the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has prompted huge disruptions to international air travel, with traffic at Frankfurt Airport down by about 95 percent, according to reports. The airline announced in a statement issued on 07 April that it would downsize its fleet by permanently decommissioning at least 43 aircraft (around 6 percent of the total) and shuttering its budget affiliate Germanwings, as the company assessed it would take 'months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels.'