Hundreds of Lufthansa flights on Wednesday have been canceled or delayed because of a technology outage caused by damaged fiber optic cables belonging to a telecommunications service provider during construction in Frankfurt, according to Lufthansa.
"Lufthansa's flight operations are currently stabilizing," according to a company spokesperson via email. "Departures are also possible again in Frankfurt. The company expects the situation to ease further over the next few hours. We regret the inconvenience this will cause our passengers."
The carrier expects operations on Thursday to be "largely on schedule," however the company is asking affected passengers to check the status of their flight on the company's app or website before traveling to the airport. "Passengers with domestic flights can switch to Deutsche Bahn until Sunday," according to Lufthansa.
"We are working on a solution swiftly," Lufthansa wrote on Twitter. "Until then, we ask all affected guests flying on domestic LH flights in Germany to book a train ticket and request a refund on lh.com."
Frankfurt is one of the carrier's hubs, Germany's busiest airport and one of Europe's biggest airports. At 12:20 ET, 18 percent of Lufthansa's active schedule Wednesday was canceled and another 28 percent was delayed, according to airline tracking site FlightAware. About 14 percent of subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine's active schedule was canceled and another 31 percent was delayed. Frankfurt had the highest percentage of departure cancellations of any major airport in the world at 14 percent, according to FlightAware, with arrival cancellations at 19 percent.
The carrier also faces on Feb. 17 a one-day strike of airport ground workers at multiple airports in Germany. "As the airports of Frankfurt and Munich are also affected, a large number of Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group flights are expected to be affected," according to Lufthansa's website.