Lufthansa Traps Passengers On Aircraft All Night time After Flight Cancels, Airport Closes

This looks like an exceedingly poorly dealt with state of affairs, particularly when you think about that this occurred at a hub (because of television for flagging this)…

Lufthansa cancels flight, however gained’t let passengers off airplane

This incident occurred on Thursday, February 19, 2026, and includes Lufthansa flight LH2446, with scheduled service from Munich (MUC) to Copenhagen (CPH). The quick 504-mile flight was operated by an Airbus A320neo, and was purported to depart at 9:30PM and arrive at 11:05PM, however that’s not how issues performed out.

In line with experiences from passengers, they ended up being stranded on the airplane in a single day, after the flight was canceled, however there have been no buses to move passengers again to the terminal.

The flight had a rolling delay, however passengers have been nonetheless pushed to the airplane, which was departing from a distant stand. As soon as onboard the airplane, the rolling delay continued. After some period of time — it’s not clear precisely with what timeframe — the flight needed to be canceled. The flight standing web page on Lufthansa’s web site reveals the flight as having a delayed 11:56PM “departure,” however after all the airplane by no means really went anyplace.

Okay, that sucks, but it surely occurs. You’d suppose passengers would then be transported again to the terminal, proper? Properly, not so quick. Each half-hour or so, the crew supplied updates about how they have been attempting to get buses to select up passengers and produce them again to the terminal, however that simply didn’t show to be really easy.

At round 2AM, the passengers have been reportedly knowledgeable by the crew that the airport was closed, and the entire bus drivers had gone residence for the evening, so passengers wouldn’t be allowed to go away the airplane, and must sleep onboard for the remainder of the evening.

Take note it is a regional configured plane, with no blankets or pillows, tight pitch, and a really restricted provide of meals and drinks onboard. It’s not clear when precisely passengers have been lastly allowed off the airplane, aside from that it was nicely after 2AM, and within the “early morning hours.”

Sooner or later early within the morning, passengers have been pushed to the terminal, and have been rebooked on different flights to Copenhagen. The primary set of passengers have been booked on the 6:40AM flight, which was delayed by roughly an hour.

How may one thing like this occur at a hub airport?

Admittedly airline and airport operations are extremely complicated, and the general public tends to oversimplify issues. However this specific state of affairs is thoughts boggling on so many ranges:

• Munich Airport is one in every of Lufthansa’s two mega hubs, so it’s not like Lufthansa doesn’t have entry to sources on the airport
• Munich Airport has a strict curfew at 12AM, so I don’t perceive how this stretched on for hours after that, while you’d suppose it could be clear that the airplane isn’t going anyplace
• An airport that accommodates 40+ million passengers per 12 months doesn’t have a system in place to get a bus driver to maneuver passengers from a stranded airplane?
• Was there not even a vacant gate the airplane may very well be taxied to by the pilots, to make deplaning attainable?

There will need to have been some type of a colossal communication screw-up right here, or one thing, for issues to go this unsuitable.

Backside line

Some Lufthansa passengers touring from Munich to Copenhagen have been in for a really disagreeable shock, once they spent the evening onboard the airplane with out really going anyplace.

The flight had a rolling delay, and it was in the end canceled. Nevertheless, by the point it was canceled, the airline may reportedly not organize a bus to move passengers again to the terminal. So passengers needed to spend the evening on the airplane, with transportation solely being organized within the early hours of the morning.

I discover it completely stunning that one thing like this might occur at an airport the scale of Munich, particularly when the airline concerned is the dominant airline there.

What do you make of this Lufthansa in a single day saga?