All Lufthansa flights grounded due to major IT outage

All flights operated by Lufthansa to and from Frankfurt were grounded in the morning (local time) of February 15, 2023, due to an IT outage.

At the time of writing, it was not yet clear to what extent other airlines of the Lufthansa Group were affected.

Austrian Airlines, for example, reported only minor problems in connection to this IT outage.

Reports in the German media, such as Der Spiegel, point to the issue being operational and not security related (although another airline, SAS, reportedly suffered cyberattacks the previous day), which affects check-in, baggage handling, and boarding procedures.

As a result of this outage, air traffic controllers are no longer directing aircraft to Frankfurt (FRA), and all aircraft are being diverted to alternative airports, such as Dusseldorf (DUS) or Cologne (CGN), preventing FRA from becoming congested.

At 11.40am local time, Lufthansa clarified that the outage was due to “construction work” in the Frankfurt area.

Another statement by the German airline provided further details about the cause of the outage, explaining that construction work damaged fiber optic cables belonging to a telecom operator. The statement added that the situation was expected to stabilize towards the evening.

This point was confirmed later on by telecoms operator Deutsche Telekom AG, which shared some pictures of the damaged cables.