Frankfurt airport has become the latest European airport to place a cap on flight numbers, in a bid to reduce disruption from delays and cancellations.
Germany’s busiest airport said that it would reduce the number of take-offs and landings to 88 movements per hour from this week.
In a statement Lufthansa – the airport’s largest carrier – welcomed the move, stating that it was “the right step to stabilize flight operations”.
The decision follows similar moves from airports including Amsterdam Schiphol, Gatwick and Heathrow.
Commenting on the news Jens Ritter, CEO of Lufthansa Airline, said that in recent weeks the carrier had “already cancelled flights in several waves to relieve the overall system”.
“This has disappointed many thousand customers, caused enormous additional work for our employees and additional costs in the millions.
“Since the already increased capacities of the ground handling services in Frankfurt are still not sufficient due to a high sickness absence rate, even for the flight schedule that has already been reduced several times, the decision taken by Fraport today [July 15] is right.
“Other airlines flying to and from Frankfurt will now also contribute to an even reduction and stabilization with flight cancellations.”
