by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 21, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa |
Lufthansa’s 5000 pilots took to the polls this week to vote on the possibly of a strike after negotiations between the Airline and Pilot’s Union failed to reach an agreement. As a result over 95% voted in favor of a work stoppage. This includes pilots from Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and germanwings (Lufthansa’s LCC).
The union stated that in the event of a strike, it would provide 48 hours notice and thus far has committed not to strike during the Easter Holiday which tends to be a VERY busy time of year for air travel within Europe.
Lufthansa has already negotiated new agreements with Cabin crew and Ground staff, leaving the Pilots group as the remaining piece that needs to be resolved. The Pilots are asking for pay raises and better terms for ‘transition contracts’ when Pilots choose to retire before normal pension payments begin. Specifically, Pilots are asking for a 4.6% raise retroactive to May 2013 along with a raise of 5.2% retroactive back to between March 2012 & April 2013.
This obviously can cause widespread misery for a lot of travelers. With the unions commitment of providing 48 hours notice, this will hopefully give Lufthansa enough time to re-accommodate passengers to other airlines and to other means of travel such as Deutsche Bahn (DB).
Obviously we have not heard the last of this, so I’ll provide updates as they become available.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 19, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa |
From time to time, Lufthansa will increase ‘inventory’ of deeply discounted tickets for travel within Europe during a particular timeframe.
With the latest edition, Lufthansa has made available 1 million tickets for round trip travel within Europe for as little as €99. There is a large variety of destinations to choose from as a result of this sale. For this particular offering, departures need to take place from either Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf or Berlin.
This fare deal runs only through Sunday, March 23 and a few date restrictions apply:
- Your outbound flight must take place between May 1 and July 31.
- Your return flight must take place between May 2 and October 31.
A sale like this is a great opportunity to bolt on an additional piece to your itinerary if you are visiting from the States or if you already live in Europe, it’s a very economical way to enjoy a weekend getaway.
To learn about other Lufthansa Fare Deals, please visit Lufthansa.com.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 17, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa |
20 Years ago today, Lufthansa celebrated two “FIRSTs” for the airline.
On March 18,1994 the first Airbus A321 entered service when ‘D-AIRA’ took to the skies for Lufthansa who was the launch Airline for the new type of aircraft. Thats ‘First’ #1.
The second ‘First’ to take place was that this A321 was the first Airbus that was fully assembled in Germany. A major accomplishment for a country just barely coming out of reunification in 1990.
The A321 model compliments the A320 family (A318/A319/A320/A321) by being an aircraft with 30% more capacity than the A320 while at the same time being 43% more efficient when it comes to carbon emissions and 10% more efficient in terms of fuel consumption. According to ‘Wikipedia’ there are 891 A321s in active service today around the world. For Lufthansa it represents the largest part of its fleet with 62 A321s in operation.
D-AIRA is still in service today. The photo at the top of this post was taken when I was plane spotting in Munich last year in the Fall.
