by Lufthansa Flyer | May 10, 2016 | Air Canada, Featured, Passenger Experience |
If you’ve been hiding in a cave over the last week, you are probably not aware of what has been happening in Alberta, Canada where wildfires have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres and threatened the very existence of Ft. McMurray, Alberta.
If you haven’t been hiding in a cave, you no doubt have seen the harrowing images and videos made possible by social media showing the devastation and the risks that residents took to evacuate their communities.
As part of evacuation, many had the option to fly out of Ft. McMurray rather than risking being caught in traffic with wildfire descending upon them.
For the privilege of fleeing their homes, Air Canada was charging upwards of $4,000 per ticket that normally costs under $100 for residents to depart Ft. McMurray and fly to Edmonton or other nearby Canadian cities. In comparison, Canadian airlines WestJet and Canadian North were flying people to safety for FREE. What was AC’s excuse?
They blamed fare ‘algorithms’ for artificially driving fares higher when their systems saw the increase in bookings. Funny, for such a large airline as Air Canada, you would think there was plenty of advance notice for them to realize what was happening in Ft. McMurray and they would have had ample time to override the artificial intelligence running their reservation systems. After all, much smaller airlines such as WestJest and Canadian North had no problem being proactive and letting people know that they would be evacuated to safety free of charge. There was no reason to extort those that were seeking a way to safety.
Only after a social media blitz that brought AC’s actions to light did Air Canada acquiesce and offered to refund the difference between the ‘Gouge’ Class fares they were selling and what the normal economy fares should have been for flights leaving Ft. McMurray.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 3, 2016 | Featured, First Class, Lufthansa, Munich, Passenger Experience |
A few days ago, I posted info regarding the removal of the First Class cabin from several A330s that are based in Munich which obviously will affect several routes. Since that release from Lufthansa, they’ve provided a further update that at least temporarily brings back the F cabin on certain routes. In speaking with LH’s Network/Scheduling Planning area today, it appears that they are in the midst of finalizing the timeline and we should expect additional updates as LH schedules their aircraft for retrofit over Winter 2016/17. For now, here is the latest info that has been loaded into their reservation system.
Munich – Boston is still scheduled to have F removed on January 3.
Munich – Charlotte has been reopened for F beyond December 1
Munich – Chicago has been reopened for F beyond January 3
Munich – Delhi removal of F has been pushed out to January 16
Munich – Miami has been reopened for F beyond February 4
Munich – Montreal has been reopened for F beyond December 1
Munich – Mumbai has been reopened for F beyond December 1
Munich – New York (JFK) has been reopened for F beyond February 2
Munich – Tehran has been reopened for F beyond December 1
Munich – Washington DC has been reopened for F beyond February 2
Regardless of the dates listed above, the plan calls for complete removal of F on these routes no later than the end of March 2017, in time for the 2017 Summer timetable.
Keep in mind, this is not a finalize schedule. A lot will depend on how quickly LH schedules their aircraft to go into maintenance for the cabin changes. Historically, delays typically take place so I expect that LH will keep providing regular updates, especially as we approach the 3rd Quarter.
Oh, and speaking of Munich, they’re leading Atletico 1-0 in today’s UEFA Semi-Final match thus far……..
H/T: AirlineRoute.net for the GDS data
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 24, 2016 | Brussels, Featured, LCC, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
Back in 2009 when Lufthansa completed the purchase of a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines, it also retained the option to purchase the remaining 55%. This option is set to expire in 2017, however the decision from Lufthansa is due in the next several weeks according to Lufthansa’s CFO, Simone Menne, who suggested this timeline during Lufthansa’s earnings conference last week. The major stipulation for the exercise of the option was that Brussels needed to demonstrate profitability on its own before LH would acquire the rest of the carrier. In 2015, Brussels finally did demonstrate a profitable year which has now put in motion the process for Lufthansa to potentially acquire the rest of ‘SN’.
What doe this mean for Brussels Airlines?? A lot……
Should LH acquire the balance of ‘SN’, it is widely speculated that Lufthansa would fold Brussels into its Eurowings ‘low cost carrier (LCC)’ and literally would jump to the number 3rd largest ‘LCC’ in Europe, behind only Ryanair and Easyjet which have been a perennial fly in the ointment for Lufthansa. It would also mean that Eurowings would grow exponentially overnight with routes throughout Europe, gain additional routes in North America and inherit a strong presence in Africa where Brussels has spent considerable effort growing its network.
Should this come to pass as I’ve described, I believe it would would have an accretive impact on Lufthansa Group. It’s no secret that Eurowings has had its share of growing pains recently due to small size of its long haul fleet. Adding SN’s existing fleet, staff, and timetable would go a long way in stabilizing Eurowings and make it an important hedge in Lufthansa’s portfolio as LH continues to battle the ‘LCCs’ in Europe. However, anytime consolidation is discussed, there is always the risk of overlap of staff and resources which could result in a re-sizing of SN so that it fits better into the Eurowings template.
The next 90 days could prove interesting…….
