There in the spring of 2020, as Covid-19 started to take off....various airlines just plain quit hauling passengers.....leaving around 55,000 Germans 'stuck'. The regions? China, Egypt, South Africa, Australia, Thailand, New Zealand, etc.
Several weeks passed, and these Germans 'stuck'....got fairly vocal and it finally occurred to the German government....they needed to do something. So, some deal was worked out with Lufthansa. The government put around 94-million Euro in, and the airline worked with each embassy....to fly x-number of jets into a central airport, and get the people out that way.
At the conclusion of this....to get on the plane, you signed an agreement deal to pay the government for their services.
Right now....around 12,000 invoices have been mailed out, and the bulk of this group have paid. If you didn't have the money.....they were even willing to accept a payment plan situation.
But in the mix....around 30 of this group have gone to court and said it's unfair.
Fairness to this deal? If the government hadn't offered up the 94-million....Lufthansa would NOT have been nice enough to make the trip. Could they have found a cheaper airline? Well....no one has openly discussed this part of the situation. I do agree....the airline had to fly empty to remote locations like Sydney or Auckland, and that empty flight had a cost factor as well. But I could have gone to Turk Air or Ryan Airways, and probably done it for 30-percent less.
If nothing had been done? Well...could you have waited this out for six months for some regular routine to have restarted in July/August?
This going to the Constitutional Court in Germany? Without any doubt.....it'll take another year, but I think it'll hit that level. The problem here.....to get a seat....you had to sign that paper to pay them back. So they had you in a pretty harsh situation.
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