holiday travel season.Germany-based Lufthansa said Friday that it was canceling a dozen long-haul transatlantic flights over the Christmas holiday period because of a "massive rise" in sick leave among pilots.
The cancellations on flights to Houston, Boston and Washington come despite a "large buffer" of additional staff for the period.The airline says it couldn't speculate on whether COVID-19 infections or quarantines were responsible because it was not informed about the sort of illness.
Passengers were booked on other flights.Lufthansa said in a statement that "we planned a very large buffer for the vacation period.