Thousands left stranded after Lufthansa cancels over 200 flights due to a software glitch: Remote job opportunities are dwindling
In today’s breaking news, several passengers were left stranded at Frankfurt Airport as a software glitch forced Lufthansa to cancel more than 200 flights. The airline said damaged broadband cables are responsible for today’s woes at the airport.
Frankfurt is one of the busiest airports in Europe and a vital hub for international passengers. In its latest communiqué, Lufthansa said its computers are rebooting and it has resumed departures from Frankfurt Airport. It further claimed that the situation at the airport would be stabilized by Wednesday evening.
Scores of flights are delayed
According to data collected from FlightAware, several flights are delayed at the airport. Videos and photos available from the airports in Germany show that several thousand passengers are waiting to check-in. A passenger at Frankfurt, Alexander Straub, said he wanted to visit a Blackpool-based wizard convention but was stranded at this airport. Another passenger, Marc Weidel, said he consumed some pretzels and was still waiting for check-in.
The national train operator in Germany and Lufthansa both blamed third-party engineering works for the extension of the railway line on Tuesday. It is stated that an optical fiber cable was damaged when drilling. It resulted in the crash of passenger boarding and check-ins at Lufthansa on Wednesday morning. It alerted air traffic control in Germany to suspend incoming flights. However, Lufthansa has now resumed flight services.
The knock-on effect also resulted in flight cancellations at other airports. It is reported that two flights were canceled at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. It also resulted in denying permission for two other flights at the airport. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam also reported the cancellation of a flight to Frankfurt.
According to information shared on social media by passengers, Lufthansa was manually organizing the flight boarding process and using pens and paper for processing the luggage of passengers. In a statement in the morning, Lufthansa said its operations are affected by an IT outage caused by construction work in the region.
Repairs two cables overnight
In a communiqué, Deutsche Telekom said its technical team has already repaired two cables overnight, the situation is improving, and many customers are back online. Deutsche Bahn conveyed its apologies to the passengers of Lufthansa for the inconvenience.
The IT outage started just two days ahead of the planned strike by airport employees in Germany. The proposed strike expects to disrupt flight operations across Germany. SAS, a Scandinavian airline, said its app was affected by a cyber attack on Tuesday evening and urged passengers not to use it. SAS stated it had already fixed the problem.
The prospects of Remote Jobs are Shrinking Rapidly
According to the best news websites in the US, remote job listings are declining quickly. As a result, several people who were hoping to get remote jobs a few months ago are losing hope. With pandemic fears eased significantly, many companies feel it is unnecessary to engage remote workers and prefer onsite work. Remote job listings on LinkedIn dropped from 20.6% in March 2022 to 13.2% in January 2023. The job postings on Indeed are also on the decline.