Frankfurt (AFP)

The German air transport giant Lufthansa will permanently reduce the size of its fleet, separating from around 40 planes, and close its subsidiary Germanwings, the coronavirus pandemic having put its passenger operations almost at a standstill, announced the group Tuesday.

The executive board "does not expect the airline industry to return to its pre-pandemic level quickly", which plunged the industry into an unprecedented crisis, the company said in a statement.

The "total lifting of travel restrictions will last for months" and the return to normal demand "for years", said Lufthansa, which cut almost all of its passenger flights until at least April 19.

The group did not detail the impact on employment of this restructuring but promised that "the objective" was to "keep as many jobs as possible".

Discussions with unions must "start quickly," according to Lufthansa.

Faced with the drastic drop in air traffic, the group plans to "permanently reduce transport capacities": at least 42 short, medium and long-haul planes will be withdrawn from the fleet currently made up of 763 machines.

This includes six Airbus A380s whose sale to the manufacturer was "anyway expected from 2022," said Lufthansa.

Eleven Airbus A320s, seven A340-600s and five Boeing 747-400s will be withdrawn from the fleet of the eponymous company Lufthansa while Eurowings must lose ten A320s.

In addition, "Germanwings' flight operations will be stopped," the company added in a statement.

For several years already, Germanwings was no longer a full-fledged company but integrated into the low-cost subsidiary Eurowings of Lufthansa, and the group had previously announced its intention to do away with the subsidiary.

The VC pilots' union "denounced" the closure of Germanwings, citing "restructuring on the backs of employees".

"No Lufthansa subsidiary is responsible for the crisis," several group unions wrote in an open letter on Monday, referring to the "existential danger" faced by the employees and fearing "sacrifice of some" in the restructuring.

More than 60% of the Lufthansa group's staff, ie 87,000 employees, are or will be registered as part-time workers, including 62,000 in Germany.

Transport capacity, the number of seats offered on its planes, has been reduced to only 5% and 700 of the 763 planes are currently grounded, stored at several airports and in particular on an airstrip in Frankfurt.

Austrian Airlines, which no longer operates scheduled flights until May 3 at least, and the Belgian subsidiary Bruxelles Airlines "are working" to reduce their fleets. Swiss will also "adjust" the number of planes.

Almost all wet lease contracts with third-party companies have been canceled.

Lufthansa is in talks with Berlin, Brussels, Bern and Vienna to "ensure liquidity," said a spokeswoman on Monday, without detailing.

"The longer the crisis lasts, the less likely it is that the future of aviation can be guaranteed without public aid," warned boss Carsten Spohr in March.

Up to $ 200 billion will be needed to support the air sector, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).

© 2020 AFP