Lufthansa grounding likely came from broadband cable cut

Deutsche Lufthansa AG grounded all of its flights on Wednesday after damage to a set of Deutsche Telekom broadband cables caused widespread IT problems. 

A Lufthansa spokesman said the issues affect the company’s ground systems including the check-in operations. German air traffic control is diverting landings in Frankfurt, Lufthansa’s main base, to prevent an overflow. It isn’t clear how long it will take to fix the IT problems.

Lufthansa’s global flight operations center is located on the outskirts of Frankfurt’s airport; damage to communications links to the facility could cause issues with Lufthansa ground IT systems across the world. Lufthansa confirmed in a tweet that the IT problems were caused by construction work in the Frankfurt region. Flights are being redirected to other German airports including Nuremberg, Cologne, and Dusseldorf.

Deutsche Telekom spokesman Peter Kespohl said that since Tuesday four broadband fiber cables had been damaged at a Deutsche Bahn Railtrack. The cables were damaged by concrete drills during work that was neither commissioned by nor conducted by Deutsche Telekom. The company has already repaired two of the cables and is still working on the others. Kespohl said Deutsche Telekom couldn’t immediately say how long it will take to finish the repairs.

In total, Lufthansa has around 700 aircraft, making it Europe’s largest airline by fleet size. Its stable of airlines includes its namesake brand and the national flag carriers Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Swiss. The company also operates low-cost carrier Eurowings as well as other smaller brands.

Lufthansa fell as much as 2.5% in Frankfurt. The shares are still up around 22% this year.

The German company is scheduled to report earnings for 2022 next month. In December, the carrier raised its full-year earnings target on rebounding air travel.