Hundreds of flights were either canceled or delayed on Wednesday, leaving thousands stranded after the airline Lufthansa experienced an IT failure, according to reports.
Reuters reported that more than 200 flights were canceled in Frankfurt, Germany, which serves a hub for the German-based airline. Frankfurt is also one of Europe’s biggest airports.
A Lufthansa Airbus A321-200 plane takes off at Tegel airport in Berlin, Germany. (Reuters)
“As of this morning, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are affected by an IT outage, caused by construction work in the Frankfurt Region,” the airline tweeted. “Unfortunately, this has led to flight delays and cancelations.”
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The airline told passengers that as it prepares for fallout from an upcoming strike this Friday, they check their flight status to keep up to date on last-minute changes.
“We understand the difficulty this situation causes and hope to be able to provide you assistance as soon as possible,” Lufthansa tweeted.
Frankfurt International Airport (iStock)
The IT systems later said all systems were back up and running and that they expect flights to return to normal by Thursday.
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The airline reportedly blamed the fiasco on engineering that was conducted on a railway line extension by a third-party on Tuesday night.
When the work was being done, a drill allegedly cut through a Deutsche Telekom fiber optic cable bundle.
As a result, Lufthansa’s passenger check-in and boarding systems crashed, and air traffic controllers were told to suspend inbound flights.
Song with hundreds of flights being canceled, over 100 were delayed.
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Frankfurt was not the only airport to experience repercussions. In fact, Charles De Gaulle in Paris reported two flights were canceled and two others were turned around.