IT Outage At Lufthansa Airlines Causes Massive Flight Delays, Thousands Of Passengers Stranded

Thousands of stranded travellers waited to be checked in, according to photos and videos from multiple airports around Germany.

(Representational Image)

An IT outage at Germany's Lufthansa caused huge flight delays and disruption across the group's airlines, the company said today, adding that the reason for the failure was yet unknown, news agency Reuters reported. 

"There is a group-wide IT system failure," Reuters reported quoting a Lufthansa official.

Photos and videos from many German airports revealed mayhem, with thousands of stranded travellers awaiting check-in. 

Lufthansa was working hard to resolve the issue, according to Bild, quoting a company spokesperson.

Customers on social media stated the breakdown caused the firm to board planes with pen and paper and that the corporation was unable to process passengers' luggage digitally.

Otro ataque informático. #Lufthansa se enfrenta actualmente a una falla global en sus sistemas informáticos. #Alemania #hackers #Germany pic.twitter.com/dJxwdx0o0g

— AUSTROHÚNGARO (@AUSTROHNGARO2) February 15, 2023

Global IT system outage for @Lufthansa_DE flight planning system.
Planes will be boarded manually but system needs to be operational for departure.#MSC2023 #munichsecurityconference #IT #security pic.twitter.com/MTOh1d4loH

— Benjamin Rohé 🇪🇺🇩🇪 🇸🇪 (@benjaminr) February 15, 2023

Lufthansa stated in a tweet, "Currently, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage. This is causing flight delays and cancellations. We regret the inconvenience this is causing our passengers."

📢 Currently, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage. This is causing flight delays and cancellations. We regret the inconvenience this is causing our passengers.

— Lufthansa News (@lufthansaNews) February 15, 2023

At 0936 GMT, shares of Lufthansa, which also owns SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings, were down 1.2 percent.

With a total fleet size of roughly 700 aircraft, the business is Europe's largest airline by fleet size.

The IT system failure occurs just two days before planned strikes at seven German airports, which are likely to cause significant disruptions.

(With Inputs From Agencies)