Lufthansa to increase destinations and flights this summer

In a statement issued on Thursday, Lufthansa announced it is further expanding its services this summer with an average of 13,304 flights per week - an increase of 3.5% when compared with 12,853 flights in summer 2010.

In its summer timetable that kicks off from Sunday 27 March to Saturday 29 October 2011, Lufthansa announced it will offer flights to 211 Lufthansa destinations in 84 countries, as against 204 destinations in 81 countries last year.

“In terms of destinations and routes, we have never offered our passengers such a wide choice of flights,” says Thierry Antinori, Chief Marketing Officer on the Lufthansa German Airlines Board.

“We are expanding in all our traffic areas, not just on long-haul routes, but once again in Europe, too.”

This summer, passengers will be able to fly with the A380, the most modern aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet, to five destinations: Johannesburg, New York (John F. Kennedy), Beijing and San Francisco (from 10 May) and Tokyo (Narita).

A sixth destination, which has yet to be announced, will be included in the A380 schedule by the middle of the year.

“Despite a significant increase in available capacity, on many flights we will be able to achieve our former seat occupancy levels,” says Antinori. “That means we will be able to welcome more passengers aboard our aircraft. The A380 is very popular and, from a commercial point of view, we are also very happy with current booking levels.”

The 2011 summer timetable includes four new summer destinations/holiday resorts: Antalya, Ibiza (from Munich), Palermo (from Frankfurt and Munich) and Trondheim (from Frankfurt). Lufthansa is also expanding its offering for leisure travellers by adding eleven new flights to existing, attractive holiday destinations.

This summer, non-stop flights will also be offered from Frankfurt to Westerland/Sylt, Rostock, Bastia/Corsica, Olbia/Sardinia, Genoa/Liguria and Split/Dalmatia. In the summer months, popular holiday destinations such as Bastia/Corsica, Bergen/Norway, Dubrovnik/Croatia, Inverness/Scotland, Jersey/Channel Islands, Keflavik/Iceland, Naples/Italy, Newquay/Cornwall and Olbia/Sardinia are only a few hours away by air from Düsseldorf or Hamburg. Lufthansa passengers have a choice of 23 flights per week to the Spanish island of Majorca from five German airports: From Frankfurt and Düsseldorf there is even a daily service.

During the summer, Lufthansa will serve about 30 destinations on the Mediterranean. “With Lufthansa, holiday travellers enjoy a full service and travel comfort, and thanks to the convenient departure and arrival times of flights at weekends, they can relax right from the word go,” says Antinori.

Available seating capacity will also be increased across Lufthansa’s route network by 11.3 per cent compared with the 2010 summer timetable. This increase remains attributable to Lufthansa’s policy of ongoing fleet renewal, which involves replacing aircraft with larger and more fuel-efficient types.

The Airbus A380 has 196 more seats than a Boeing 747-400 and therefore adds significantly to the available capacity. Eight A380 are scheduled to be in service towards the end of the summer timetable. Higher productivity due to improved capacity utilisation, the expanded seating configuration of Lufthansa’s new product on European routes and extra frequencies will drive capacity growth, the airline carrier said.

Frequencies will be increased on European routes from Düsseldorf, for example, to Moscow, Manchester, Budapest, Vienna and Geneva. The route with the highest frequency in the Lufthansa network is Frankfurt–Berlin (Tegel), with 111 flights per week operated in each direction.

The five carriers in the Lufthansa Airline Group – Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, bmi, Brussels Airlines and SWISS – operate services via the hubs Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. Together they serve a total of 283 destinations in 105 countries in four continents and also augment one another’s networks by offering codeshare flights.

The new destinations in the Lufthansa 2011 summer timetable

Frankfurt – Trondheim                  2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Frankfurt – Palermo                      2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Munich – Antalya                            1 x per week (Sat)

Munich – Ibiza                                1 x per week (Sat)

Munich – Palermo                         1 x per week (Sat)

The new routes in the Lufthansa 2011 summer timetable

Düsseldorf – Bergen                      1 x per week (Sat)

Frankfurt – Bastia                            1 x per week (Sat)

Frankfurt – Genua                           2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Frankfurt – Olbia                              2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Frankfurt – Split                                2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Frankfurt – Westerland/Sylt        2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Frankfurt – Rostock/Laage         2 x per week (Sat, Sun)

Munich – Dublin                               1 x per week (Sat)

Munich – Malta                                 1 x per week (Sat)