by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 28, 2016 | Featured, Industry News, Passenger Experience |
In a proposal submitted by Homeland Security, visitors coming to the US under the Visa Waiver Program may be asked to provide a listing of their various social media ‘profiles’. Specifically, this would apply to ESTA and I-94W applicants.
In the proposal, Homeland Security suggests that any information provided would only be used for ‘vetting and contact purposes’.
As scary and invasive as this sounds, the proposal as written suggests that providing this addition information will be ‘voluntary’. However critics of the proposal suggest that most applicants will feel like they have to submit the information so that their applications are not deemed suspicious or incomplete.
The proposal is now open to a 60 day period for public comment before any further steps are taken.
How’s that for Big Brother concepts??
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 28, 2016 | Featured, Fleet Update, Lufthansa, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience |
Later this year, Lufthansa will begin its rollout of Broadband Access across all of their medium and short-haul aircraft. Beginning in October, and taking until mid-2018, LH will retrofit their A319, A320, and A321 aircraft so that passengers can enjoy in-flight connectivity using their own smart-devices to access the system. Since the 737 will be retired from the fleet this year, it will not be part of the expansion.
According to LH, their Technik division is the first MRO in Europe to receive certification for installing the necessary technology aboard Airbus narrow body aircraft.
Certain aircraft have already been retrofitted with this capability so that systems can be tested before the public is able to use it beginning in October.
Lufthansa Group plans to roll this out to other LH Group Airlines, so expect to see SWISS, Austrian, and Brussels to have the same capability.
A future update will allow passengers to use their cellphones to sent and receive text messages using their own cellphone plans.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 26, 2016 | BREXIT, Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
Of course there are other more important issues that revolve around the UK’s decision to secede from the EU, but LH’s CEO has offered his perspective on BREXIT’s impact on the Lufthansa Group.
Carsten Spohr, CEO of the Lufthansa Group has voiced his confidence that the group will see minimal impact to it’s bottom line once the British split from the EU is complete. Considering LH’s total sales, the UK comprises only 5% of revenue to LH’s top line.
As it stands now, LH group flies over 7 million passengers between mainland Europe and the UK each year with half of that traffic involving Frankfurt or Munich. London Heathrow itself sees over 350 LH Group departures each week.
What may change things once the split is complete is the amount of demand that the UK will have for LH flights. As it stands now, with the open travel policy between EU states, it’s easy to move from country to country without much effort and European Airlines are the direct beneficiary of this freedom. However, should border and immigration controls be reinstated, the desire for Europeans to visit the UK and vice versa, may change noticeably.
We can hope that intelligent heads prevail and that travel will remain largely unaffected with the new look to the EU. But that may be wishful thinking…..not too many intelligent heads seem to be around.
