by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 22, 2014 | Airlines, Airports, Austrian, Brussels, Featured, germanwings, Lufthansa |
In light of recent events today at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, LUFTHANSA GROUP has cancelled ALL FLIGHTS scheduled to and from Israel for the next 36 hours.
This involves flights operated by AUSTRIAN, SWISS, LUFTHANSA and GERMANWINGS.
According to what I’ve read there have been several rockets that have landed near the airport which has prompted this appropriate response.
In addition, the FAA has also required US airlines to cease operations to Israel for AT LEAST 24 hours.
If your Lufthansa travels are affected by this, please use this link to contact your nearest customer service center so that you can be reaccommodated.
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 | Apr 20, 2014 | germanwings, Lufthansa |
As Lufthansa’s plan to transition more and more of their non-Munich and non-Frankfurt related flights to germanwings continues, additional route updates were recently provided by Lufthansa.
The latest update primarily involves flights operating out of Dusseldorf. Beginning this fall, 10 additional flights will be operated by germanwings:
Beginning on September 18, the following routes will transfer to germanwings:
Dusseldorf – Birmingham
Dusseldorf – Manchester
Dusseldorf – Newcastle
Dusseldorf – Paris
On October 8 the following route transfers to germanwings:
Dusseldorf – Vienna
On October 26, the following routes transfer to germanwings:
Dusseldorf – London (LHR)
Dusseldorf – Malaga
Dusseldorf – Moscow (VKO)
Dusseldorf – Naples
Dusseldorf – Nice
by Lufthansa Flyer | Mar 16, 2014 | Featured, germanwings |
One of the things that I like about germanwings (Lufthansa’s European LCC), is their progressive thinking when it comes to travel promotions. Their most popular program has been around for some time but for most of us in the USA we seldom see it or hear about it. With Lufthansa’s decision last year to finally consolidate most of their European network (non-Munich or Frankfurt related) into germanwings, many of us from the States are starting to discover germanwings for the first time.
Ready For A Surpise??
‘Blind Booking’ is a program where your destination is selected for you based on a certain theme of travel that you choose during the booking process. Options include traveling to cities specializing in Shopping, Nature, GLBT Lifestyle, Party, Sun & Beach, Culture, Europe Mix and Metropolis. Within each of these categories is a selection of several cities that you could potentially be booked to for your trip. It won’t be until after you pay for your ticket that you find out which city you will be visiting. However, you can deselect cities from the grouping if you would like (but it will cost you €5 for each city you deselect!).
For example, if you chose ‘Metropolis’ as your theme, you will be randomly booked to one of the following cities:
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 8, 2013 | Airlines |
A quick update on what had the potential to be another paralyzing strike for Lufthansa. In a last minute deal, UFO, the union representing germanwings’ cabin crew and airline representatives reach an agreement that will remove the possibility of a strike. A threat of a strike had been looming since employees voted in favor of one, however at this point cooler heads prevailed and there will be no strike. The settlement offer still needs to be voted upon by the union membership however it is expected to be ratified.
