by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 9, 2014 | Airlines, Featured, Lufthansa, Munich |
In response to the pilot’s strike called for tomorrow in Munich, Lufthansa will operate AT LEAST 1 Round Trip between Frankfurt and Munich with a 747-400. It’s too bad that such a rare event has to take place under this kind of circumstance, but if you are in Munich tomorrow between 10:00 and 11:00a, be on the look out for tail #D-ABVY.
D-ABVY will make a cameo appearance in Munich on Wednesday.
There may be another 747 service between FRA and MUC but nothing official has been published by Lufthansa as of yet. This is a saavy way that LH can bypass some of the flights affecting passengers in Munich by rerouting their travel through Frankfurt, thus minimizing inconveniences.
Additionally, it looks like long haul flights are safe for tomorrow since pilots have volunteered to keep the long haul routes going, but there may be some delays to them as far as the afternoon departures are concerned. Lufthansa has also published a list of flights that are cancelled for tomorrow. You can find that info here.
H/T: FlyerTalk’s NewbieRunner and Oliver2002
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 8, 2014 | Airlines, Featured, Industry News |
Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that if the EU escalates their sanctions against Russia to include its Energy sector, Russia will retaliate in kind with sanctions against the EU’s Airline Industry. This coming from an interview that was conducted by Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper and published today.
As it stands now, European airlines enjoy the ability to transit Russian airspace on their routes to Asia, which typically saves 2-4 hours of flight time and thousands of dollars in fuel costs versus having to fly around Russian airspace.
Should these events come to pass, it will cost an airline like Lufthansa over $1 billion in additional fuel and maintenance expense EVERY 3 MONTHS should the ability to fly over Russia be taken away. In fact, the Lufthansa Group operates 220 flights per week that transit Russian Airspace, so it’s quite easy to see how the additional expenses can add up quickly.
Of all the European Airlines, only KLM-Air France use Russian airspace more than Lufthansa; they transit Russian airspace 249 times per week (according to Bloomberg data).
As the war of words and sanctions continues to ratchet up, its unfortunate that no one in a position of influence clearly understands the concept of unintended consequences. With most European airlines operating at losses, or at best a paper thin profit margin, we may see some of the smaller airlines fail as a result of this volley of sanctions between the EU and Russia. At the same time Russia does not emerge as a winner in this situation either because they would lose millions in air traffic revenue generated by airlines transiting their airspace.
We’ll learn more in the coming days as the EU is set to meet today and announce their plans for increasing sanctions against Russia some time tomorrow. Early rumors suggest that Russia’s oil companies may be restricted from raising long term capital from European markets.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 6, 2014 | Airlines, Featured, Lufthansa, Route Announcements |
After what was basically a ban on all airlines by the Indian Government/Civil Aviation Ministry restricting the use of large capacity airlines by foreign carriers, Lufthansa has receive permission to bring their A380s to India, specifically Delhi and Mumbai.
The ban on ultra large capacity airliners was put in place several years ago by India in an attempt to protect Indian airlines from losing passengers to foreign carriers who had the capability to bring large capacity aircraft to India.
Several months ago Lufthansa started to bring their 747-8i aircraft to India and now the A380 will start appearing in India as well. Beginning October 26, the A380 will begin flying from Frankfurt to Delhi and Mumbai on a daily basis.
Here is the specific flight info:
Frankfurt-Delhi:
Lufthansa LH760 will depart Frankfurt at 1:40p (CEST), arriving in Delhi the next morning at 1:30a.
Lufthansa LH761 will depart Delhi at 3:30a, arriving in Frankfurt at 7:20a (CEST).
Frankfurt-Mumbai:
Lufthansa LH756 will depart Frankfurt at 12:45p (CEST), arriving in Mumbai the next morning at 1:10a.
Lufthansa LH757 will depart Mumbai at 3:05a, arriving in Frankfurt at 7:20a (CEST).
