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- Flights Operations Expected to Stabilise Soon
A Lufthansa aircraft stands at Terminal 1 at Frankfurt Airport. Due to an IT breakdown at the Lufthansa Group, thousands of passengers were affected by delays and flight cancellations. (PHOTO : Arne Dedert/dpa)
German airline Lufthansa says construction work on a rail line in Frankfurt is to blame for a massive IT failure that has disrupted operations around the world.
Several fibre optic cables from telecoms provider Deutsche Telekom were said to have been cut by an excavator, possibly on Tuesday.
The local news portal Hessenschau said there had been telecom disruptions affecting the greater Frankfurt area.
Frankfurt Airport, the main centre of Lufthansa’s operations, is located west of Germany’s financial hub. The airport is diverting all incoming flights due to capacity concerns.
Lufthansa has also cancelled or delayed domestic and international flights at other airports.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa has that it expects its flight operations to stabilise in the coming hours after a major IT failure struck on Wednesday morning and disrupted flights across its network.
The airline’s computer systems could probably be restored on Wednesday afternoon, but air traffic and schedules would take longer to sort out.
The systems outage was caused by construction work on a rail line in Frankfurt. An excavator cut through fibre-optic cables at a depth of 5 metres on Tuesday afternoon, telecoms provider Deutsche Telekom said, adding that repair work was under way.
Lufthansa’s operations are also set to be impacted by an all-day strike by staff at several German airports on Friday.
