by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 25, 2016 | Featured, Swiss, Voucher |
SWISS is celebrating Weltspartag (World Savings Day) with a voucher giveaway that will give away 1000 vouchers. For bookings being made for European travel, the voucher is good for €20. If you are booking an international flight, the voucher can be redeemed for €80.
You’ll have to hurry. Once the 1000 vouchers are claimed, the promo is over!
When booking use the appropriate ‘code’ at checkout:
For Euro travel, use code SWISSEUROPASPARTAG2016.
For International bookings, use code SWISSWELTSPARTAG2016.
H/T: FlyerTalk’s Oliver2002
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 25, 2016 | Airports, Featured, London Heathrow |
After what seems like a lifetime (and for some of you, even before that), London Heathrow has finally received permission to move forward with plans to construct a 3rd runway. The approval came amid a contentious debate between supporters and opponents of the idea. Supporters looked at the 3rd runway as a much needed relief valve for the already over-congested LHR as well as a huge economic boon to the area and country. The major concerns from the opposition revolved around cost of the construction and environmental impact.
The layout of the Runway expansion. Looks like a few villages will have to move over a bit. Courtesy: BBC
The £18 billion runway, set to be over 11,000 feet long, is however a long way from being installed. Opponent groups have already announced plans to raise funds and to take the fight to the airport and government through legal challenges in an attempt to have the decision reversed. Should the legal challenges fail (as I expect they will), the runway construction would begin in 2020 and if everything is on time, the runway would enter service 5 years later.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 23, 2016 | Air Berlin, Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa |
Reuters has reported that talks may have taken place between Lufthansa and Alitalia about the prospects of Lufthansa taking a substantial stake in Italy’s national carrier. The main topic of the conversation may have been regarding Etihad looking to give Air Berlin to Lufthansa in return for a stake in Alitalia.
Etihad currently owns a 49% stake in Air Berlin and a 29% stake in Alitalia and both investments are slowly becoming disasters for Etihad. So much so that Etihad signed off on the Air Berlin deal to let Lufthansa lease 40 aircraft and take over a substantial part of Air Berlin’s routes while Air Berlin tries to fix its woes.
According to the article, Alitalia management denied that any talks have happened but what are they supposed to say? Yes? We did and Lufthansa is going buy a large piece of us and we’re going to throw in Air Berlin as a door prize? How many times have discussions been denied only to become fact a short time later.
It’s an interesting 3-way deal that may be brewing between Rome, Frankfurt and Abu Dhabi. Etihad sees 2 major losses on the horizon with Air Berlin and Alitalia, and sees a way out of almost both problems by giving away Air Berlin to Lufthansa in turn for Lufthansa taking a stake in Alitalia.
My gut suggests that a complete take over of Air Berlin by Lufthansa would simply solidify their Eurowings unit as one of Europe’s largest Low Cost Carriers (LCC) without Lufthansa having to grow the brand organically from within. Considering Air Berlin’s dire financial straits, LH could steal the airline for a song.
But of course, these conversations never happened 😉
