Flight cancellations: Advance payment practice for airline tickets is shaky

Dusseldorf In view of the high number of flight cancellations, Germany’s airlines have to worry about their usual booking practices. Until now, passengers have often paid for their tickets weeks before departure and in recent months have repeatedly become interest-free and unsecured lenders to the airlines. The federal government is now threatening to overturn the obligation to pay in advance.

The initiative comes from the home of Consumer Protection Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens). “If the airlines don’t make refunds, compensation payments and compensation quickly and unbureaucratically in the next few months in the event of justified claims by passengers,” said a spokesman, “the advance payment practice will have to be reviewed.”

Lufthansa had already canceled around 3,000 flights in June, and 770 more were added in mid-July. In addition, more than 1,000 take-offs and landings were canceled last week because the company’s ground staff went on strike. Now there is also the threat of a strike by the pilots.