Lufthansa IT outage leaves thousands stranded, hundreds of flights canceled
Lufthansa said the outage was caused by a severed telecommunications cable
IT failure grounds Lufthansa planes
An IT outage at German airline Lufthansa caused more than 200 flight cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Thousands of travelers in Germany were left stranded Wednesday due to an IT outage that impacted German airline Lufthansa. The outage was caused by a severed telecommunications cable, with more than 200 flights canceled, according to reports.
Lufthansa said it was "affected by an IT outage, caused by construction work in the Frankfurt region," asking passengers to rebook travel within Germany on trains. More than 200 flights were canceled and 100 were delayed as a result of the IT outage.
It later said its IT system had rebooted and departure flights out of Frankfurt Airport had resumed. The airline said it expected the situation to be stabilized by the end of the evening, with Frankfurt flights back on track by Thursday. Lufthansa apologized to customers, asking them to rebook their flights scheduled for Wednesday.
Both Lufthansa and Germany's national train operator blamed the outage on engineering work being conducted on a railway line extension Tuesday evening, during which a Deutsche Telekom fiber optic cable bundle was cut.
Passengers stand in line after an IT outage at Lufthansa caused massive flight delays and disruptions in Frankfurt, Germany. (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters Photos)
Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s main telecom provider, confirmed that a cable was cut during the drilling.
The severed cable is said to have contributed to passenger check-in and boarding system issues on Wednesday. Incoming flights were suspended by German air traffic control as a result. Deutsche Telekom ensured technicians were "already on site" to resolve the problem in a tweet posted Wednesday.
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"Our technicians are already on site. Due to the considerable damage and situation on the construction site, the remedy will be extremely difficult," the telecom provider wrote.
Passengers were forced to wait after an IT outage at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport. (REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters Photos)
Other European airports reported cancellations as a result of the Lufthansa outage, with Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport canceling two flights and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport canceling one flight into Frankfurt.
Staff works beside railroad tracks as an IT failure at Lufthansa stranded passengers and forced flights to Germany's busiest airport to be canceled or diverted in Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday, with the airline blaming botched railway engineering (REUTERS/Timm Reichert / Reuters Photos)
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Fox News Digital reached out to Fraport for additional comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Reuters contributed to this report.