by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 27, 2016 | Air Berlin, Etihad, Eurowings, Featured, LCC, Lufthansa |
Over the past few weeks it was quite obvious that Air Berlin was in ‘perilous peril’. News starting coming from Germany that Etihad was no longer happy with their stake in Air Berlin and was even looking at ways to divest of their ‘mistake’. At the top of most headlines was the fact that Lufthansa was prepared to take advantage of AB’s weakness and takeover aircraft and routes while Air Berlin restructured their operations.
With the latest news from Germany on Monday, we now gain clarity and confirmation of what has been discussed previously.
People in Europe were waking up to headlines that Air Berlin indeed will be restructuring operations in an attempt to return to profitability. Leading the list of changes is the elimination of over 1,000 jobs and reduction of its fleet of 127 aircraft to only 70 by the end of this year.
To dovetail this announcement, Lufthansa has been planning for this and had previously offered to assume control of 40 of Air Berlin’s aircraft and operate most of the Air Berlin routes that do not serve Dusseldorf or Berlin, both of which are major AB hubs. LH will ‘wet lease’ the aircraft and crews from AB and will operate them under ‘Eurowings’, LH’s Low Cost Carrier unit. What this means is Air Berlin is guaranteed to receive ‘rent’ for the aircraft, but Lufthansa gets to keep profits, or absorb losses.
In addition to the aircraft that Lufthansa will take over, it appears that Air Berlin will also sell 17 of their birds currently owned by ‘Niki’ to TUIFly. ‘Niki’ is an Austrian based subsidiary of Air Berlin.
The timing of the implosion of Air Berlin couldn’t have happened at a better time for Lufthansa. At the top of LH Group’s priority list for 2016 was to make sure that Eurowings would be set up for success and become accretive to Group’s balance sheet. So far success has been muted for a variety of reasons including the fact that the fleet is a bit undersized, uber aggressive competition from competitors, and a change in consumer sentiment in Europe that has fewer people thinking about travel.
With the injection of 40 aircraft, new routes, and broader coverage Lufthansa has the opportunity to make Eurowings what it is supposed to be, which is a low cost option for passengers to travel to destinations not usually served by mainline carriers. At this moment, Eurowings only has 33 aircraft in the fleet making it difficult to reach their goal. With the influx of 40 new aircraft, crew and hundreds of new flights, EW will have literally doubled in size over night without much effort or substantial risk.
Eurowings now has the opportunity to finally meet the expectations that everyone had for it. However the expectations may have doubled as well!
Lufthansa Group’s Supervisory Board is scheduled to meet Wednesday, September 27 to review and vote on the proposal for bailing out Air Berlin. It’s expected to be approved unanimously so expected another announcement in the coming days that confirms what we already know.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 22, 2016 | 737, Featured, Fleet Update, Lufthansa |
Earlier this week, Lufthansa took the final step to retire a long serving member of their fleet when they arranged for the sale of their last 737-300 aircraft. For those of you keeping score at home, they are:
D-ABEC Entered service on July 9, 1991
D-ABED Entered service on July 12, 1991
D-ABEE Entered service on July 18, 1991
D-ABEF Entered service on July 31, 1991
D-ABEH Entered service on August 15, 1991
D-ABEK Entered service on November 21, 1991
D-ABEN Entered service on January 16, 1992
These final 7 have been sold to Automatic LLC, a firm specializing in leasing aircraft. The aircraft will be delivered to Automatic LLC between October and December and will be refit for further sale or leasing.
To see what a Lufthansa 737 looks like along with all the other Lufthansa aircraft, please visit my Lufthansa Gallery on Aero-Shots.com.
H/T: FlyerTalk / Oliver2002
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 21, 2016 | Fare Sale, Featured, Lufthansa |
Lufthansa’s latest fare sale has a few attractive deals whose highlight includes New York to Stockholm for only $470 as well as Washington to Munich for $499.
Aside from these fares, there are several deals from the East Coast to Europe that run in the low to mid $500 range such as Miami to Munich or Miami to Berlin. Even Chicago sees mid-$500 range fares with Chicago to Nuremberg or Chicago to Stuttgart.
Other fares from the East Coast run in the $600-750 range, while the Mid-West and West Coast fares range between $800 and $1200.
The sale is in place until October 6.
Departing flights must take place between October 11 and 29th and return travel can take place between October 12 and April 29, 2017. Tickets need to be purchased at least 21 days prior to departure and a weekend surcharge will apply if traveling between Thursday and Sunday. A Saturday night stay is required as well.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 18, 2016 | Featured, Lufthansa, Strike, Vereinigung Cockpit |
Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), the union representing the bulk of Lufthansa’s ‘mainline’ pilots, has announced that it has broken off negotiations. This comes after several months of negotiations worked to arrive at long term labor peace.
The big sticking point is VC’s demand that Lufthansa provide an outlet for pilots to choose early retirement and still receive their full retirement benefits, a concept that LH has steadfastly opposed.
Another fly in the union’s ointment is Lufthansa activity around Eurowings. With recent announcements of LH taking on Air Berlin aircraft and routes, as well as the expansion of Eurowings to Munich, the union is claiming this is being done intentionally by LH to reduce mainline demand. The union sees the risk of potential pilot layoffs from mainline which is why it feels LH is not negotiating a solution to early retirement options.
Though no strikes have been mentioned by name, VC has a history of calling ‘warning’ strikes that pop up with little or no notice, and last a few hours at a time. Just enough to disrupt operations and upset an airport full of passengers. These mini-strike are often warning shots in an attempt to force LH’s hand and they typically don’t succeed. So don’t be surprised if something isn’t announced on very short notice over the coming weeks.
Personally, I thought that VC and LH had started to warm up towards one another over the last few months after a tumultuous 2014 and 2015 that saw 13 strikes and hundreds of millions of Euro in losses for Lufthansa.
This of course is addition to the labor woes impacting Eurowings as they try to sort things out with Ver.di.
I’m afraid that history may be poised to repeat itself…….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Sep 15, 2016 | Ducks, Featured, First Class, Munich, Oktoberfest, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience, Trachtencrew |
Lufthansa has released the details about their ‘Trachtencrew’ schedule for 2016.
Celebrating their 10th Anniversary passengers will find these crews, dressed in their Oktoberfest best, on several flights over the coming weeks. Two crews will be featured and will be seen on six long-haul flights this year. In addition to the flight crews, ground staff in Munich will also be in the Oktoberfest spirit, sporting their Dirndls as well. Passengers visiting the First Class Lounge will see a Dirndl pattern that is unique to the First Class Lounge staff (and don’t forget to get your ‘Oktoberfest’ Duck!).
As a matter of fact, if you are flying from Munich to either Toronto or Washington DC today (Sept 15), you’ll see them. On September 20, passengers flying from Munich to Shanghai or Hong Kong will enjoy their hospitality. On October 2nd, the Trachtencrew will be aboard the flight from Munich to Denver, and on October 3 from Munich to Boston.
In addition to the long haul flights, the Trachtencrews will also be found on flights to Europe. Passengers will see them on flights to Birmingham, Belgrade, Cluj, Nice, Olbia, and Sylt.
