Why Did Lufthansa’s Munich–Cape Town Flight Take a 13-Hour Detour?
A Lufthansa flight from Munich to Cape Town puzzled flight trackers on October 25 when it took a highly unusual route—adding more than two hours to its journey.
Flight LH574, operated by an Airbus A350 (registration D-AIXS), departed Munich and was expected to follow its usual near-direct southbound route over central Africa. Instead, the aircraft turned west after departure, flying over Madrid, the Canary Islands, and then along the west coast of Africa before crossing the Atlantic Ocean toward Cape Town.
While the flight typically takes around 10 hours and 45 minutes, this journey lasted 13 hours and 5 minutes.
The detour sparked a wave of reactions online. Some joked that “the captain was the new Vasco da Gama,” while others speculated about political or security motives—such as avoiding certain countries’ airspace due to potential legal issues involving passengers on board.
However, these theories quickly fell apart when other airlines—including another Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town around the same time—followed their normal routes. That ruled out explanations such as bad weather or airspace restrictions.
The real reason was more bureaucratic than dramatic: Lufthansa’s operations team had failed to secure overflight rights for several African countries. Airlines must obtain permission to use a nation’s airspace, not only for legal reasons but also because air navigation and control services charge fees for each overflight.
This particular LH574 flight was the first of the new winter season, with the previous flight under the same number last operated on March 29. It also departed just hours before Europe switched to winter time—perhaps compounding the operational confusion that led to the costly detour.
