by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 13, 2017 | Air Berlin, Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa |
Lufthansa yesterday closed on a transaction that allowed it to acquire 20 Air Berlin aircraft, Air Berlin’s ‘NIKI’ subsidiary as well as AB’s LG Walter operations. The deal amounted to $210 million Euro (approx. $250mm USD).
In return, Lufthansa agreed to protect all jobs that were affected specifically by this deal. In other words, LGW and NIKI employees do not need to fear for their jobs.
In his comments, LH Boss Carsten Spohr indicated that Lufthansa would infuse over $1 Billion Euro into the Air Berlin acquisitions which will cover updates and upgrades to the aircraft, as well as future aircraft acquisitions for LH’s LCC Eurowings, which is where all the Air Berlin assets will be assigned to going forward.
Several large parts of Air Berlin have yet to be sold. It appears that Easy Jet and Thomas Cook / Condor will also benefit from the liquidation of Air Berlin, though no specific deals have been announced. Ryanair has apparently been blocked out of any chance to benefit from the Air Berlin garage sale.
During this recent shopping spree, Spohr also suggested that Lufthansa would very much be interested in Alitalia. Though he firmly denied any interest in acquiring the struggling carrier in it’s current form (which is basically as bad as Air Berlin’s condition), he did suggest that Lufthansa would be very interested in helping the Italian gov’t create a ‘New’ Alitalia. I thinking ‘Lufthalia’??
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 9, 2017 | Asia, Berlin, Featured, Frankfurt, Lufthansa |
While away for the last 2 weeks, Lufthansa released information concerning their Winter 2017/18 timetable. Their updates reflect the resumption of 2 routes to the USA as well as 1 to Asia.
Perhaps the most important announcement involved the resumption of service between Berlin (Tegel) and New York (JFK) as a result of Lufthansa’s takeover of certain Air Berlin routes. Beginning November 8, LH will fly between TXL and JFK 5 times per week (Daily except for Friday and Sunday). The last time that LH flew this route was back in 2001.
Flight LH406 will depart Berlin Tegel at 5:35p, arriving in JFK at 8:35p while flight LH407 will depart JFK at 10:20p, arriving in Berlin at 12:15p the next day.
In addition, LH has also announced the following resumptions of service between Dusseldorf and Miami. Beginning November 8, 2017 LH will fly the route 3x/week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays.
Turning to Asia, Lufthansa announced that it will resume flights between Frankfurt and Shenyang, China effective March 26, 2018. The route will be flown 3x/week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays from Frankfurt.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 23, 2017 | A350, Featured, Lufthansa, Munich, Route Announcements |
Lufthansa has announced that it will deploy their A350 fleet to fly between Munich and Beijing.
Beginning on October 30, the A350 will replace the A346 that currently flies the route. This change will be in place through at least the Winter timetable that stretches between late October and Early March.
The flight numbers (LH722 ex-MUC and LH723 ex-PEK) and departure times remain the same.
H/T: Oliver 2002 / FlyerTalk
