by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 26, 2016 | Avgeek, Bayern Munich, Corporate, Featured, Livery |
Lufthansa has unveiled a new livery that will dress up one of their A340 aircraft as it brings Bayern Munich to the USA for the Audi Summer Tour. The tour brings some of Europe’s top Football teams to the USA for a series of exhibition matches in Chicago, Charlotte, and New York. In addition to Bayern, fans will be able to enjoy watching Inter Milan, Real Madrid, and AC Milan take to the pitch.
The first match for Bayern will be in Chicago on July 27 against AC Milan. From there they’ll travel to Charlotte for a match against Inter Milan on July 3 before wrapping up the tour in New York on August 3 against Real Madrid.
To make sure that fans (and airport visitors) know that Bayern is in town, they’ll show up in an A340-600 (D-AIHK) in each city that they are scheduled to play in. After this exhibition, the A340 will continue to carry the livery for the next year.
D-AIHK shown prior to departing to the USA with FC Bayern aboard on July 25.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 20, 2016 | Air Berlin, Airlines, Corporate, Etihad, Featured, Lufthansa |
In news out of Germany in the last several hours, it appears that Lufthansa is a little bit more than serious about acquiring routes and aircraft from a struggling Air Berlin.
In a potential deal between unlikely bedfellows, Lufthansa is in discussions with AirBerlin’s main stake holder, Etihad, about the prospects of acquiring upwards of 40 aircraft and a majority of routes that are not operated in or out of AB’s hubs in Berlin and Duesseldorf. The acquisition would also include the crews for the aircraft.
Air Berlin currently operates 148 aircraft, so any acquisition would be a major one, since it would cut Air Berlin’s fleet by 27%. But this kind of a deal would also take the sting out of AB’s balance sheet which has hemorrhaged $1.29 BILLION in losses over the last 3 years.
The aircraft and routes would be assigned to Lufthansa’s Eurowings ‘Low Cost Carrier’ division and would immediately grow market share by eliminating the AB competition on the routes. This also plays well in Lufthansa’s plan that seeks to grow Eurowings by 25-30% in the coming year.
The one fly in the ointment will be the anti-trust fears that Germany and the EU will have. Historically, Germany and/or the EU have not looked favorably at deals that potentially reduce competition in the marketplace. But on the other hand, the real threat exists for the loss of thousands of jobs and the failure of an airline.
Not that the EU has made any good decisions lately, but here’s a chance for them to not screw something up! 😉
It would also be a welcomed jab at the ME3 who have been dumping capacity into Europe thanks to their subsidized operations, but I digress…….
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 8, 2016 | Corporate, Featured, Lufthansa, Strike |
Finally…..
After months and years of squabbling and strikes, Lufthansa has announced that it has reached a binding long-term agreement with UFO, the union that represents most of Lufthansa’s cabin crew employees.
The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is in place until June 30, 2019 with further agreements that guarantee salary increases, employment guarantees, and pension enhancements beyond that date:
Cabin crew will receive a 1% raise on October 1, with an additional 2% raise on January 2018.
A shift in pensions programs from a defined benefit program to a defined contribution program. This reduces fiscal liability to Lufthansa, who will contribute 5.2% of an employees salary annually towards their pension benefit. Employees can still retire at age 55.
A conflict resolution process has been put in place through 2023.
Current cabin crew have employment guarantees through 2021. Lufthansa will not be able to hire non-union cabin crew for Lufthansa Airlines until 2023.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jul 7, 2016 | Featured, First Class, Lufthansa |
While I was away and a bit unreachable, Lufthansa re-confirmed destinations that will no longer have First Class cabins available for booking.
If you recall a few months ago, Lufthansa announced their initial list showing which cities would no longer see Lufthansa First Class cabins and later recanted the update and restored scheduled First Class service to some destinations.
However, LH has now provided an update that has brought these cancellations back to the timetable. Most of the changes take place for flights beginning in December and First Class reservations will no longer be accepted after June 30 for these routes:
Munich – Boston: First Class will no longer be available beginning January 3.
Munich – Charlotte: First Class will no longer be available beginning December 1.
Munich – Delhi: First Class will no longer be available beginning September 23.
Munich – Denver: First Class will no longer be available beginning December 2.
Munich – Montreal: First Class will no longer be available beginning December 1.
Munich – Mumbai: First Class will no longer be available beginning December 1.
Munich – Tehran: First Class will no longer be available beginning December 1.
This appears to be the beginning of a trend especially in Munich as the 3-cabin Airbus A350 will begin to join the fleet in January 2017 and replace aging A340 and A330 aircraft. The A350 will only have Business, Premium Economy, and Economy Class cabins.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 28, 2016 | Featured, Fleet Update, Lufthansa, On Board Experience, Passenger Experience |
Later this year, Lufthansa will begin its rollout of Broadband Access across all of their medium and short-haul aircraft. Beginning in October, and taking until mid-2018, LH will retrofit their A319, A320, and A321 aircraft so that passengers can enjoy in-flight connectivity using their own smart-devices to access the system. Since the 737 will be retired from the fleet this year, it will not be part of the expansion.
According to LH, their Technik division is the first MRO in Europe to receive certification for installing the necessary technology aboard Airbus narrow body aircraft.
Certain aircraft have already been retrofitted with this capability so that systems can be tested before the public is able to use it beginning in October.
Lufthansa Group plans to roll this out to other LH Group Airlines, so expect to see SWISS, Austrian, and Brussels to have the same capability.
A future update will allow passengers to use their cellphones to sent and receive text messages using their own cellphone plans.
