BERLIN (Reuters) -An IT fault at Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa has caused massive flight delays and disruption at airlines across the group worldwide, the company said on Wednesday, adding that the fault cause was still unclear.
“There is a group-wide IT system failure,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Reuters.
Photos and videos from several airports across Germany showed chaos with thousands of stranded passengers waiting to be checked in.
Shares in Lufthansa, which also owns SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings, were down 1.2% at 0936 GMT.
Lufthansa was working intensively to solve the problem, Bild reported citing a company spokesperson.
Passengers on social media platforms said the failure had forced the company to board planes using pen and paper and that the company was unable to digitally process passengers’ luggage.
In a tweet, Lufthansa said, “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.”
The IT system failure comes two days ahead of planned strikes at seven German airports expected to lead to major disruptions.
(Reporting by Ilona WissenbachWriting Riham AlkousaaEditing by Rachel More)
