Lufthansa Restructuring Continues…

Lufthansa has revealed details of its next round of route transfers to low-cost subsidiary Germanwings.  The Frankfurt-based operator has already consolidated much of its non-hub, short-haul network as part of its ongoing SCORE cost-cutting programme.  It is expected that its wholly-owned budget arm will assume control of Lufthansa’s services from Düsseldorf to Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Paris/Charles de Gaulle from September 18, while its links to London/Heathrow, Malaga, Moscow/Vnukovo, Naples and Nice will follow on October 26.

Despite having achieved its profit and restructuring targets for 2013, the carrier’s outgoing CEO Christoph Franz has suggested SCORE may continue beyond its current conclusion date of 2015.  He told Reuters he did not think Lufthansa had realised all the benefits of the initiative, adding: “I don’t believe we’ve squeezed all the juice out of the fruit yet,”

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Budget flights on the rise, prices too

Budget airlines are expanding their range of routes from Germany but ticket prices are climbing along with them, a report from the German Aeronautics Centre (DLR) revealed on Thursday

Airlines in the industry's low-cost segment flew 466 routes from Germany last winter - an increase of 43 connections over the same period the previous year. Budget flights between Germany and Spain were up 28 percent, while connections to Britain increased by 14 percent and to Austria by ten percent, the DLR's "Low Cost Monitor" study found.

While low-cost airlines launched new connections to destinations such as Estonia from Germany, the number of German domestic routes fell by ten percent. Meanwhile ticket prices have taken a hike, with journeys costing between €70 and €160 in comparison to a range of €60 to €120 the previous year.

"Flying on a budget has got a good deal more expensive," said the DLR report's authors.

Air travel expert and consultant Heinrich Großbongardt told the Rheinische Post newspaper on Thursday that flights cost around five percent more than in spring 2013 and 30 percent more than five years ago.

"The reason is that the budget airlines are no longer coming into contact on the same routes. That has loosened the competition,” he said.

Despite creeping fares, over 65 million passengers flew with low-cost airlines from German airports in 2013, giving the cheap providers a 32 percent share of the total 203 million passengers. Air Berlin remains Germany's top budget airline, with its 1,700 flights a week taking up around 42 percent of the country's low-cost market, but Lufthansa's daughter company Germanwings is closing the gap.

Taking over a chunk of Lufthansa's flight plan, Germanwings flew 60 percent more routes over the winter than in the previous year and now run around 1,200 flights per week, the DLR report found.

As a result of Germanwings' expansion, Berlin's Tegel airport, from where Lufthansa runs many of its European flights, has boosted its roster of low-cost flights to 800 a week.

But London Gatwick airport remains Europe's capital for budget flights, launching 7,000 of them a week.

And across Europe Irish firm Ryanair is the biggest budget airline, running 7,500 flights each week and holding a 22 percent stake in the European low-cost market.

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Germanwings sees low Sarajevo demand

Germanwings has warned of poor ticket sales on its newly launched service from Berlin to Sarajevo. The airline inaugurated flights from the German capital to Sarajevo this Tuesday but has already advised it could cancel the service soon, indicating poor advanced ticket sales. The airline recently informed the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Germany that demand for the new route has been poor and flights could be cancelled during the initial trial period. The Lufthansa subsidiary called on authorities in Bosnia for assistance. Germanwings will operate flights from Berlin to the Bosnian capital every Tuesday and Thursday morning with a 150-seat Airbus A319.

Since the request, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina has informed the country’s Foreign Trade Chamber to promote the new service to its business partners. Germanwings already has a notable presence at Sarajevo Airport, with flights from Cologne and Stuttgart as well. With no direct or indirect competition on these routes, the hybrid low cost/full fare airline has been performing well on its Sarajevo flights. However, as of late, there have been increasing suggestions the airline could face off against Wizz Air, which is believed to be close to announcing services from the Bosnian capital. Wizz Air’s arrival to Sarajevo has been tipped for several months now and its recent announcement to downscale operations from Belgrade could see it push for flights from Sarajevo sooner rather than later. It has been suggested the airline will launch several routes out of the Bosnian capital as early as this winter.

Sarajevo Airport is currently served by only one low cost airline, Pegasus, and two hybrid low cost/full fare carriers - Germanwings and Norwegian Air Shuttle. However, Bosnia’s busiest airport has aspirations to attract more no frills airlines and passengers alike. The airport is in the planning stages of opening a low cost terminal. The building is presently being used by the airport’s management, which will move to its new headquarters by the end of the month and, as a result, vacate facilities for low cost airlines.

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Lufthansa and Germanwings to fly GCC passengers to 235 destinations this summer

Four new Lufthansa destinations - more than three quarters of European routes excluding Frankfurt and Munich transferred to Germanwings
Flights to Tokyo city airport Haneda, four new long-haul services, additional Mediterranean destinations and the continued transfer of Lufthansa direct connections to Germanwings: these are the main highlights of the 2014 summer flight timetable. For Lufthansa it includes the four new destinations Jakarta, Tokyo-Haneda,

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