Germany's Lufthansa affected by IT outage, causing flight delays and cancellations

German air carrier Lufthansa has reported that it has grounded all of its flights because of the company's IT issues. Media outlets reported that the company was urgently investigating the matter. It was unclear whether Lufthansa flights that were already airborne were instructed to land.

📢 Currently, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage. This is causing flight delays and cancellations. We regret the inconvenience this is causing our passengers.

— Lufthansa News (@lufthansaNews) February 15, 2023

Lufthansa’s team of airlines includes its namesake brand and the national flag-carriers Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Swiss. The company also operates low-cost carrier Eurowings as well as other smaller airlines. In total, the group operates around 700 aircraft, making it Europe’s largest airline by fleet size. 

German news agency dpa reported that all of the airline's domestic flights were cancelled and passengers were requested to switch to alternative forms of travel, such as trains.

The airport in Frankfurt said that technical problems at Lufthansa were causing “flight disruptions and cancellations”.

“Please check the status of your flight before traveling to the airport and allow extra time for your journey,” the airport said. “We also recommend that you check in as early as possible for your flight,” it added.