by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 31, 2015 | Airlines, Eurowings, Featured, germanwings |
This Sunday, February 1, marks the first time that an A320 will fly under Lufthansa’s Eurowings LCC subsidiary. The ‘inaugural’ flight will take place between Hamburg and Prague – departing Hamburg at 10:55a and arriving in Prague at 12:00p. The aircraft will also sport Eurowing’s new livery.
D-AIZQ will be the first Eurowings A320 to enter service (Photo: Lufthansa)
Eurowings is part of a larger program known as ‘WINGS’ which focuses on the ‘leisure’ travel market and competes directly with other LCCs within Europe such as Ryanair, Easyjet, and others. The WINGS fleet serving Europe and nearby medium-haul destinations will be comprised of an A320 fleet. The A320s will be replacing the 23 Canadair CRJ900s currently being used by Eurowings. In all, 23 A320s will be in the fleet. 12 will be transferred from Lufthansa and 10 are on order from Airbus.
Plans call for all of Lufthansa’s LCCs including Germanwings to be consolidated into Eurowings, which will ultimately be Lufthansa’s only LCC division. This realignment should be completed by the end of this year and will feature destinations worldwide.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 29, 2015 | Edelweiss, Featured, On Board Experience, Swiss |
To mark their 20th Anniversary, Edelweiss will be offering passengers the rare opportuntity to take off on a Zeppelin flight from several Swiss cities during 2015.
Flights will be offered on a very limited basis and will operate for only a few days from each city. Here is a list of the cities and the dates of the flights:
Monchaltorf: May 21 – June 1
Flights will take place over Zurich and Lake Zurich.
Basel: July 6 – July 12
Flights will take place over Basel and the Rhine River.
Interlaken: July 27 – August 2
Flights will take place along the Alps, over Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.
Sitterdorf: August 7 – August 9
Flights will take place over Lake Constance and Kreuzlingen.
Grenchen: August 17 – August 24
Flights will take place over Solothurn, Burgdorf and Lake Biel.
Birrfeld: August 25 – August 31
Flights will take place over Lenzburg, Koblenz and Baden
Most flights will last for 30 minutes and will cost CHF 149 per passenger. During the Zepplin’s visit to each city, special events will be planned at each venue on certain days as well.
For additional information and to book your flight, please visit the Edelweiss Zeppelin Webpage.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 28, 2015 | Airlines, Featured |
What has been expected for a while has become official.
The US Air Force has chosen the Boeing 747-8i to replace the existing 747 aircraft that serve as Air Force 1 when flying the President on his appointed rounds. This comes just in time as Boeing’s 747-8i backlog is diminishing as the final few aircraft are completed.
Know to the military as the VC-25, the current pair of Aircraft that serve as Air Force 1 have been in service for approximately 25 years. The new planes would enter service in 2017-18 and would start flying the President in 2023 after additional years of testing and retrofit to meet military standards and the installation of the secret systems that would be required.
This will most likely also mean the end of the line for the 747-8i and perhaps the 747 platform in general since Boeing is ramping up their facilities for the 777x and has no plans for a successor 747 model. There are only a handful of deliveries left for the 747 and no new orders are on the horizon.
At one point, Boeing was thought to have offered Lufthansa a bargain-basement price to purchase additional 747-8i aircraft to sustain the production line. However nothing came of those negotiations.
The story first broke via Reuters earlier this afternoon.
