by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 9, 2014 | Airports, Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa, Munich |
In their latest bid to disrupt passengers, the union representing Lufthansa’s pilots has called for a day-long strike that will affect Munich tomorrow. The strike will take place between 10:00a and 8:00p CEST.
The previous strikes during the past 2 weeks had only affected EU and domestic German flights, this time the strike will impact long haul travel as well since the strike covers all LH flights in and out of ‘MUC’ during the stated time frame.
At this time, LH has not yet published their list of impacted flights, but I expect that to happen in the next few hours. As part of this list I also expect that LH will cancel flights with departure times prior to and after the strike’s timeframe due to aircraft and air traffic logistics.
You can use this link to visit LH’s dedicated page that will provide updates on the strike, which will include the list of impacted flights.
Flights operated by Swiss, Brussels and Austrian that serve MUC will not be affected.
Starting to sound like a broken record isn’t it??
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 | Aug 24, 2014 | Featured, Industry News, Travel |
Iceland’s Bardarbunga Volcano has been making news all week as 1000s of minor earthquakes began rattling the region. On Saturday, the volcano began to ‘officially’ erupt which has prompted Iceland to close a small part of the airspace near the volcano as a precaution. Thus far, the closure has not affected air traffic.
The the closed airspace covers a 100 mile x 140 mile perimeter around the volcano. Iceland also raised their aviation alert to “RED” indicated that they expect a significant eruption which will expel dangerous ash into the atmosphere.
If you recall, back in 2010, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul erupted which affected over 100,000 flights and millions of passengers. That eruption also wreaked havoc with airline profits and aircraft.
If your near term travels involve flying the North Atlantic corridor, basically the route used by Airlines flying between the USA and Europe, you may want to start paying attention to this event and perhaps plan a contingency in the event of an eruption that cripples travel.
If the situation deteriorates, Airlines will begin to allow passengers to rebook or cancel their travel plans without assessing any fees or penalties. I suspect that this event will play itself out in the next few days so be prepared!
