by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 2, 2015 | Austrian, Brussels, Featured, germanwings, Lufthansa, Swiss |
On the heels of successful development and testing, LUFTHANSA is set to expand their BioFuel efforts to a new airport for 2015.
Beginning in March, Lufthansa will begin to use a blended Biofuel Kerosene on all flights that depart from Oslo, Norway. This will cover nearly 5,000 departures from Oslo flown by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, Brussels and Germanwings. The blended fuel will be provided by Statoil, a Norwegian energy company.
Oslo will be the first airport in the world that will have continuous availability of Bio-Kerosene as plans call for 2.5 million gallons to be delivered to Oslo and pumped directly through it’s refueling infrastructure throughout the year.
As part of this long term development process, Lufthansa had previously tested the use of BioFuel on regularly scheduled flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg for a year and a half as well as on a long-haul test flight between Frankfurt and Washington DC back in 2012.
Lufthansa has been working on a BioFuel alternative for several years and during that time had run extensive testing on a variety of blends from several providers. The challenge has never been the effectiveness or safety of BioFuel but rather finding a sustainable long term supply solution. The key to BioFuel’s future success will depend heavily on Lufthansa’s ability to build a reliable network of suppliers who can source the fuel and meet stringent and consistent criteria as to it’s quality.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Nov 30, 2014 | Featured, Lufthansa, Strike |
The union representing the majority of Lufthansa’s pilots has broken off talks with the airline after failing to reach an agreement in a long-standing labor dispute.
As a result, the union has once again threatened work stoppages that could come at anytime but they did indicate that there will be no strikes during the Christmas Holiday.
The talks have broken off even after Lufthansa offered pilots a 5% pay raise. However the major sticking point revolves around early retirement. The union wants LH to let pilots retire as early as age 55 with a majority of their benefits intact while Lufthansa’s position has remained that the minimum retirement age should be somewhere ‘north’ of 55 for a pilot to earn full retirement benefits.
With these new threats, strikes can be called with as little as 24-48 hours notice and can include pilots from Cargo, Lufthansa and Germanwings. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Lufthansa has become quite adept at handling these strikes and has been proactive in assisting passengers during work stoppages.
I’m sure we’ll hear more in the next few days.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Oct 15, 2014 | Featured, germanwings |
Lufthansa’s low cost carrier (LCC) unit ‘germanwings’ will have its pilots walk off the job tomorrow, October 16, for 12 hours between noon and midnight CEST. This is just another installment in whats become an all to familiar scheme to get Lufthansa to buckle to the Union’s demands of letting pilots retire early, with substantial and perhaps unrealistic benefits.
Flights to and from Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne, Hamburg, Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Hannover are in the crosshairs for this strike.
Germanwings has not yet published much information regarding options that will be available to passengers, etc. If your travels include ‘4U’ tomorrow, please check on Germanwings.com throughout the day today.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Aug 28, 2014 | Featured, germanwings |
The union representing the majority of Lufthansa’s pilots has followed up on their threat to call strikes on short notice by asking pilots for ‘germanwings’ to strike on Friday from 6:00a to noon (CEST). This will affect upwards of 116 flights.
The strike can still be averted if a negotiation session taking place today goes well and sides can reach some agreement on the issues at hand. The biggest sticking point creating this mess is the fact that the union wants pilots to be able to take 60% of their income if or when they retire at age 55, while Lufthansa is suggesting that pilots can fly until they are 65 and begin taking benefits at that point.
If your germanwings flights are impacted by this strike, please use this link to contact their service center so that they can reaccommodate you.
I wish I could retire at 55 and get 60% of my income at that point. Sounds a bit too optimistic 😉 .
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 23, 2014 | Airports, Austrian, Brussels, Featured, germanwings, Lufthansa |
LUFTHANSA GROUP has announced that flights operating to and from Israel are canceled through at least June 24. This extends the ban another 24 hours from their previous announcement yesterday.
The reason for the cancellation is out of an abundance of caution after rockets landed near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport yesterday. In light of the recent shoot down of the Malaysian 777 over the Ukraine, this does seem to be an appropriate response.
This affects 20 flights operated by Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, germanwings and Brussels. If your itinerary is affected, please use this link to find contact information for Lufthansa in your country.
