by Lufthansa Flyer | Aug 6, 2014 | Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa |
I normally don’t reach out to you asking for help but in this case I am making an exception…..
LUFTHANSA has been nominated as one of the finalists in SimpliFlying’s 2014 award for Best Airline In Social Media and there’s good reason for it! When you consider LH’s presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Google +, Pinterest and other social media outlets, it’s easy to see that they are among the most active and effective airlines when it comes to Social Media interaction with passengers and fans and why they deserve a vote!
For example, Lufthansa has 12 Twitter accounts, each for a different region of the world that they serve so that passengers have a local exposure to the airline and in many cases, in their native language. This doesn’t include Twitter accounts by other LH Group companies or divisions, but strictly for the passenger airline division. After doing the math, Lufthansa’s passenger airline Twitter accounts have sent out over 68,000 Tweets to over 377,000 Followers around the world.
In addition to their active presence on Twitter, Lufthansa has also built quite a portfolio of other Social Media outlets:
Facebook:
Lufthansa: This is the main Facebook page for Lufthansa with a whopping 1.7 million likes and is one of Lufthansa’s main Social Media outlets. Visitors will find up to date information on flight operations, contests and promotions. Visitors can also post messages for Lufthansa.
Lufthansa USA: Over 110,000 “Likes” and the source of helpful information, customer service and contests and like the main Facebook page, visitors can ask questions directly to Lufthansa representatives who’ll help resolve travel related issues.
YouTube:
Lufthansa’s Channel: With well over 200 videos, Lufthansa uses YouTube to take you behind the scenes on a variety of topics of interest to passengers and ‘avgeeks’. You’ll find everything from Aircraft videos to employees who take you behind the scenes at the airline. Over 16,300 Subscribers receive regular updates and access to new content!
Google +:
Lufthansa Google+: LH launched their Google+ account on June 25, and are using the outlet to share fantastic aviation related content. You’ll find a variety of Lufthansa related video and photo content including vintage looks at the history of airline. They are actively adding content to build this new channel and it’s worth a visit and a ‘Follow’.
Instagram:
Lufthansa Instagram: Lufthansa uses its Instagram account to reach over 33,000 followers with great images of Lufthansa destinations, aircraft and special events.
Tumblr:
Lufthansa Tumblr: LH uses Tumblr to share content that is typically important to passengers including information on fleet enhancements and normal airline news. You’ll also find occasional games and contests on here as well.
Pinterest:
Lufthansa Pinterest: Here you’ll find ’10 Boards’ designed specifically for the Lufthansa passenger. The LH Pinterest page features travel tips and helpful information on a variety of topics.
Now that you are a bit more familiar with the reach that Lufthansa has through a variety of Social Media outlets, I hope that you can see your way to vote for Lufthansa and their Social Media team. Winning the category becomes a major bragging right for the winner since few travel industry award programs recognize marketing or social media.
After nearly 4 years of getting to know the teams personally both in the USA and Germany, I can genuinely say you couldn’t vote for a nicer group of individuals! 🙂
Voting for the award closes on Friday, August 8 at Midnight US Eastern time.
Paid for by the ‘Friends Of Lufthansa’ SuperPac and they approve this message…. 😉
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 10, 2014 | Featured, germanwings, Industry News, Lufthansa, WINGS |
In my last post I touched on the fact that LH is planning to launch two LCC programs over the next year. In that post I talked about the intercontinental version and a potential partnership with Turkish. In this post, I’ll look more closely at what an intra-European LCC may look like.
It’s no secret that the Lufthansa Group is being bombarded by substantial competition from literally dozens of Low Cost Carrier (LCC) airlines in Europe. Rather than being stubborn and attempting to force ‘their will’ on the European airline passenger, LH is looking to adapt and diversify their portfolio in an attempt to deliver options that would be suitable for any passenger. To that end, they have decided to wade into the LCC market place with a large scale rollout.
WINGS is Lufthansa’s answer to the LCC market place and beginning in the Spring of 2015 we’ll begin to see WINGS become reality. As planned, it will be based on the current Germanwings concept that is currently based in Germany. Lufthansa will use and rebrand its Eurowings division and use it as WINGS’ foundation as it builds its hub network and Germanwings will become part of the WINGS network. Plans call for WINGS to be positioned in each of Lufthansa Group’s main European hubs including Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Brussels and Zurich and will compliment the LH mainline airlines operating out of these hubs.
The first WINGS hub is planned to open at Basel Airport in Switzerland and begin operations in Spring 2015 with 2-4 A320 aircraft based there.
To accomplish this undertaking several changes will take place in the Germanwings and Eurowings fleets. To meet expected demand, Germanwings will have up to another 60 Airbus narrow body aircraft added to fleet. For Eurowings, their fleet of Bombardier CRJ aircraft will be replaced by Airbus A320 aircraft and may grow to a fleet as large as 23 planes. The move to replace the CRJs is due largely to the fact that Lufthansa has considerable cost and operating efficiencies.
We will no doubt see WINGS become a bigger and bigger part of Lufthansa’s vernacular over the next year as we get closer to the rollout. Hopefully this solution will finally be the answer LH has been looking for when dealing with the LCC marketplace.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 10, 2014 | Featured, Industry News, Lufthansa |
Lufthansa has announced that it intends to launch a new inter-continental and intra-European ‘Low Cost Carrier’ airline designed to attract additional passengers.
The new model, WINGS, will be focused on attracting the budget-minded traveler who typically purchase tickets based on price, not worrying about loyalty programs, on board amenities, etc. Initial plans call for WINGS being a multi-tier program based on the Germanwings model.
As far as the long haul elements of WINGS, Lufthansa is currently studying 2 options and will decide in the near future which route it will take.
Option 1 would have Lufthansa going alone at the endeavor and potentially retrofit several of its existing long-haul aircraft into 1 or 2 class configurations. Option 2 has Lufthansa teaming up with another airline an act as partners in the new airline. At the moment, Lufthansa is in advanced discussions with TURKISH AIRLINES and the 2 sides are trying to determine if such a venture makes sense for both sides.
If an agreement is reached with TURKISH, expect to see a fleet of 767 and A330 aircraft begin to enter service for the Winter 2015/16 timetable. Initial plans call for up to 7 aircraft to make up the new intercontinental fleet.
Additionally, Lufthansa is facing a decision as to what to do with 9 of its A340 aircraft. LH is looking at ways to put these aircraft to work on underperforming routes or to launch new routes in a manner that aligns with the WINGS Low Cost Carrier model. No decision have been as of yet as LH is considering internal and external partnership options.
Lufthansa’s decision to go in this direction is in direct response to the tremendous pressure they face from Low Cost Carriers (LCC) that are prevalent in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. LCC Passengers are looking for the lowest possible price points for their travels and apparently are not concerned with amenities and other benefits that come with flying with a ‘Mainline Carrier’.
I see this as a bit of an experiment taken on by LH to determine if there is viability in long-haul LCC operations. Only a small handful of airlines operate long haul LCC routes so the success/fail rate has not been established enough to identify trends.
After reading through Lufthansa’s release yesterday, I got the sense that the attitude that they are adopting is “ACT, OR BE ACTED UPON”. In such a competitive industry, its absolutely the right vision to have. But the success will obviously depend on the execution.
I’ll update you on what the WINGS concept will look like within Europe in another post later today. I spent most of yesterday helping several family members plan flights today to Slovakia to attend my Grandmother’s funeral (99 years old and had the chance to watch her beloved Brazilian soccer team one last time) and did not have much time to interpret all of the information that Lufthansa released yesterday. At the moment, I’m enroute to Vienna so I’ll try to find a window later today to provide the update.
