Germany news: Lufthansa scraps 20,000 flights

Bayern Munich have taken a major step toward a treble, reaching their first German Cup final since 2020 with a 2–0 win at Bayer Leverkusen.

Top scorer Harry Kane opened the scoring midway through the first half, while Luis Díaz wrapped it up in stoppage time.

Bayern will face either Stuttgart or Freiburg in the final in Berlin on on May 23, but first need to focus on their Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain next week.

The semi-final victory comes just days after Bayern sealed a record 35th Bundesliga title.

The war in Iran is having a profound effect on the global aviation sector. Shortages and surging prices of jet fuel are wreaking havoc on flight routes.

Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, announced that it had canceled 20,000 flights between May and October in an attempt to save fuel.

DW tried to figure out how quickly jet fuel supplies could run out and what impact the instability could have on ticket prices.

FC Bayern's women's team secured their eighth Bundesliga championship on Wednesday with a 3:2 victory over Union Berlin.

Just three days ago, FC Bayern's men sealed the deal, and now the women have done the same.

Goals on Wednesday came from Edna Imade, Barbara Dunst and Giulia Gwinn, captain of the German national team.

Speaking after the game, Dunst said, "This is absolutely incredible," before adding: "We have another big match coming up in the next few days, so we're taking it easy for now. We'll save it for later."

Coach Jose Barclay's team has four games left on the schedule but they are hot to win the so-called triple — the Bundesliga, the Champion's League and the German DFB Cup.

They will have their chance to advance to the Champions League final when they square off against Spain's FC Barcelona on Saturday. They will then face rivals VfL Wolfsburg in the DFB Cup final on May 14.

German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will supply the nation's military, the Bundeswehr, with a classified number of explosives-laden drones.

These loitering munitions can circle a target before autonomously dive-bombing it.

Delivery of the UAVs, which will be produced in the western German city of Neuss, is scheduled for the first half of 2027.

The order placed for FV-014 model drones was made under a framework contract worth €1 billion ($1.2 billion), according to informed sources. 

"With the FV-014, the Bundeswehr will acquire another weapon system with which it can protect its own forces and engage critical targets quickly, in a controlled and effective manner," Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said of the deal.

Rheinmetall, a producer of classic arms, has lagged on the drone front and is playing catch-up with competitors like Stark, and Helsing, both of which have signed such framework deals with the Bundeswehr already.

Germany and India are set to ink a new arms production deal that would see the two nations collaborate in the construction of battle submarines.

On Wednesday in Berlin, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signed a 10-point plan designed to enhance defense production cooperation, alongside a team of Indian representatives.

Pistorius also traveled to the northern city of Kiel with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, where the two toured the facilities of the German TKMS shipbuilding company.

Pistorius said the deal will lift "industrial arms cooperation to the next level."

Pistorius said both partners would profit from the deal, not just their industries, but also their armies.

Germany's federal government must still approve the final deal but Pistorius seems certain it will, saying, "I'm confident we'll be able to sign a final deal soon."  

India has said that it wants to team up with TKMS to build six new submarines in Mumbai worth as much as €8 billion ($9.3 billion).

According to the SIPRI research institute, India is the world's largest importer of arms. 

Between 2019 and 2023, the country procured some 36% of military hardware from Russia. That trend is waning at the moment.

India's Minister of Defense, Rajnath Singh, began a three-day state visit to Germany with the aim of bolstering defense relations between the two countries.

After meeting with his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius, Singh wrote on X that they had exchanged views on a wide range of issues, including ways to deepen defense cooperation and address emerging geopolitical challenges.

Singh also said he witnessed the signing of the Defense Industrial Roadmap and the Implementing Arrangement for Cooperation in UN Peacekeeping.

Before the trip, India's Defense Ministry said talks will focus on strengthening "military-to-military engagements," and exploring opportunities in areas like cyber security, artificial intellegence and drones.

Ahead of Singh's visit, speculation grew that the two ministers may even finalize a critical defense contract for the supply of six advanced submarines to the Indian Navy. The deal involves building the submarines in India transfering their design and technology to India.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to climate protection, but said emissions cuts must not undermine economic and industrial growth.

He told a Berlin climate conference that climate policies must be multilateral, ambitious, and effective to retain public support and competitiveness.

"A transformation which leads to deindustrialization will not be accepted by the public and will ultimately hinder innovation," he said. "Nevertheless, we will continue to be an important sponsor of public climate action."

Read more about what Merz told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue here.  

Russia has confirmed its plans to halt oil exports from Kazakhstan to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline from May 1.

"From 1 May, volumes of Kazakh oil previously transported via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany will indeed be redirected to other available logistics routes. This is due to current technical capacities," Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told journalists.

The move threatens a key refinery which supplies the vast majority of diesel, petrol and heating oil needed for the German capital, Berlin.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy had confirmed the plan in a statement to DW on Wednesday. Read the full story here.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has called on the European Union to take advantage of the defeat of Viktor Orban in Hungary and implement structural reforms in the bloc.

"Following the elections in Hungary, we have an unusually good window of opportunity which we want to use — and must use  to make Europe stronger and more sustainable," he said.

"Structural reforms can no longer be pushed back, especially because crisis is increasingly becoming normal," he continued, adding with reference to Orban that the EU must "overcome blocking attempts from individuals who have dragged us backwards in recent years."

Wadephul was speaking ahead of a trip to the Republic of Ireland, which is set to take over the rotating Presidency of the European Union Council from July to December 2026.

In Dublin, he will hold talks with his Irish counterpart Helen McEntee.

The German Economy Ministry has cut its growth forecasts for 2026 and 2027 as a result of rising energy prices triggered by the ⁠Iran war.

The ministry now expects ​0.5% growth for 2026, down from an ​earlier projection of 1%, with the 2027 outlook cut from 1.3% to 0.9%. 

"The economic recovery expected ‌for this year is once ‌again being ​held back by external geopolitical shocks," Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said. 

Europe's largest ​economy has been struggling since the coronavirus pandemic, with surging energy costs driven by the Ukraine war and now the Iran conflict posing a significant challenge to its recovery.

"The war in Iran is driving up energy and raw material prices. This is putting a strain on private households and increasing costs for the German economy," Reiche said.

The ministry also adjusted its inflation projections to 2.7% this year and 2.8% in 2027, up from 2.2% last year.

A wild boar had to be put down after getting its head stuck in a metal fence in a German town on Tuesday night.

According to local police, the wild pig had wandered into the pedestrian area of Bad Harzburg, a small town near the Harz National Park in Lower Saxony in central Germany.

Authorities said the animal was unable to free itself from the fence and was put down by a professional hunter "in order to prevent further suffering."

It remained unclear how the pig managed to enter the town center unnoticed.

The local fire brigade disposed of the cadaver.

Interactions between wild boars and humans are not uncommon in Germany. In 2020, one pig made headlines after stealing a laptop from a naked man on a nudist beach.

Three days after securing their 34th Bundesliga title, Bayern Munich travel to Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-final of the German Cup (DFB Pokal) on Wednesday night.

Incredibly, given their recent domestic dominance, Bayern haven't reached this stage of the competition since 2020, suffering a series of early exits — including humiliating defeats against lower-league sides Holstein Kiel and Saarbrücken.

This season, however, Vincent Kompany's team has seen off Wiesbaden, Cologne, Union Berlin and RB Leipzig to reach the final four and keep their chances of a league-and-cup double alive.

Youngsters Lennart Karl and Tom Bischof are set to miss out with light muscle injuries, as will German international Serge Gnabry, whose World Cup chances are also in doubt as he recovers from a thigh strain.

But fellow Germany star Jamal Musiala is likely to start as he continues his difficult recovery from a bad leg break at the start of the season.

For Leverkusen, it's a third consecutive semi-final appearance. In 2024, they beat Fortuna Düsseldorf en route to winning the cup. Last season, they sensationally lost to Arminia Bielefeld, who were then in the third division.

The second semi-final sees VfB Stuttgart host SC Freiburg in a southwestern derby on Thursday.

Attempts to rescue the humpback whale that has been stranded off Germany's northeastern coast continued on Wednesday, despite some experts giving up hope.

The whale — nicknamed "Timmy" after the Timmendorfer beach where it was first stranded three weeks ago — has managed to free itself on several occasions, only to end up stranded again. Since Tuesday, it has been lying in a shallow bay off the island of Poel, near the northern German town of Wismar.

Local authorities abandoned official attempts to save the whale earlier this week, but a private initiative funded by two businessmen has been permitted to continue the rescue efforts.

The initiative has been beset by internal disagreements and disputes, but work continued on Wednesday, with helpers using specialist equipment to try to dig a channel deep enough for the whale to swim free. 

According to Sergio Bambaren, a Peruvian author and philanthropist who is also the vice-president of environmental protection organization "Mundo Azul" and who is acting as spokesman for the rescue initiative, the whale still has a 50-50 chance of survival.

"The whale is a fighter and wants to live," Bambaren told local media.

But Bambaren and another member of the initiative, an influencer by the name of Danny "Firstclass" Hilse, have been criticized by US veterinarian Jenna Walace, who quit the initiative and returned to Hawaii earlier this week.

"The rescue group are battling against huge restrictions, but they also have two completely ridiculous people who don't belong anywhere near this mission," she told public broadcaster NDR, accusing the pair of attention-seeking for "clicks, likes and to sell books."

"It's OK to have a voice and draw attention to something, but once you've done so, you need to put your ego aside and do what's best for the animal," she said. "I don't want to lose my job and I cannot be held accountable or risk my veterinary license over individuals' mistakes."

The brand new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt International Airport was officially opened on Wednesday — with only a slight delay and only marginally over-budget.

The new passenger terminal at Germany's largest airport is designed to handle around 19 million passengers per year with the potential to expand to 25 million, which would make it bigger on its own than Germany's fourth-largest airport ofDüsseldorf (24 million passengers).

When work began 10 years ago, Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport initially budgeted for costs of between €2.5 million to €3 million ($3 million to $3.5 million) which eventually ended up at around €4 million. The new terminal was expected to open in 2022, but construction was delayed largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nevertheless, compared to the notorious delays and soaring costs which turned the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport into a national running joke in Germany throughout the 2010s, Frankfurt's new Terminal 3 has been completed comparatively on-time and on-budget.

The reasons for the largely smooth operation lie in a compartmentalized building process consisting of more than 300 individual construction projects and a so-called design freeze overseen by experienced managers, according to Harald Rohr, chief executive of Fraport's expansion project.

Rohr himself had already overseen the expansion of Frankfurt's Terminal 2, the Frankfurt Airport Train Station building known as "The Squaire," and the airport's freight terminal.

Fellow project CEO Stephanie Pudwitz had previously worked on several construction projects in Berlin's diplomatic quarter as well as the new European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt.

Criticism of the new terminal came from groups such as the IKUL Initiative for climate and environment protection, which slammed the project as a "symbol of mismanagement, environmental destruction and megalomania."

Regular operations at the new Terminal 3 are expected to begin on Thursday.

After announcing the discontinuation of its CityLine subsidiary last week, German flagship airline Lufthansa confirmed on Wednesday that the move would lead to the scrapping of 20,000 flights between now and October.

"Uneconomical" short-haul routes which have been "at least temporarily" discontinued include connections from Lufthansa's Frankfurt hub to Bydgoszcz and Rzeszow in Poland and Stavanger in Norway.

Ten further connections to Heringsdorf and Stuttgart (Germany), Gdansk and Wroclaw (Poland), Cork (Ireland), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Rijeka (Croatia), Sibiu (Romania), Trondheim (Norway) and Tivat (Montenegro) will be rerouted via other Lufthansa hubs which, in addition to Frankfurt, include Munich, Vienna, Zurich, Brussels and Rome.

Lufthansa said it would provide further details about its "flight optimization plan" at the end of April but that the cancelations so far would save more than 40,000 tons of kerosene, the price of which has doubled since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The airline insisted that it expected "stable fuel provisions" for its summer holiday flight plans.