Lufthansa (Frankfurt) is expected to announce later today it will bring its new Jump low-fare Airbus A340-300 subsidiary to Tampa, Florida from Frankfurt starting on September 25, 2015. The new service will use its aging Airbus A340-300s configured with approximately 300 seats. LH will initially launch Jump with three A340-300s.
Lufthansa issued this statement:
Lufthansa continues to expand its network in the United States. For the very first time in its history, Lufthansa will offer service to the Tampa Bay area, the gateway to the West Coast of Florida. The new nonstop service from Frankfurt will begin on September 25, 2015.
The airline will be operating five weekly flights in summer and four weekly in winter on the Airbus A340-300 on the route between Frankfurt and Tampa. Tampa joins Miami and Orlando as Lufthansa’s third destination in Florida.
Flight LH 482 will leave Lufthansa’s Frankfurt hub and arrive in Tampa in the afternoon (local time) after a flight of nearly eleven hours. The return from Florida is a night flight, which will depart in the early evening and touch down at Frankfurt Airport in the morning of the following day.
The A340-300 seats a total of 298 passengers in Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class offering the comforts and quality that Lufthansa is known for, with the newest cabin layout in all traveling classes: Seats in the new Business Class extend horizontally at the touch of a button into a flat and comfortable bed 1.98 meters (6.5 feet) in length, and the recently introduced Premium Economy Class offers more personal space and more legroom. In all classes, passengers will enjoy an individual inflight entertainment system with a plethora of offerings, along with fast broadband Internet connectivity via the FlyNet Wi-Fi hotspot onboard.
Tampa is known as the birthplace of commercial aviation. 100 years ago, the first commercial flight in history occurred between St Petersburg and Tampa on January 1, 1914.
In other news, Lufthansa announced its new Premium Economy Class will take off nine days earlier with this announcement:
The Lufthansa Premium Economy Class is taking off nine days earlier than planned. Already on November 22, the new travel class will be available for the first time on all routes flown by a Boeing 747-8 (including Bangalore, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Peking, Sao Paolo, Seoul, Tokyo-Haneda and Washington D.C.).
Its take-off on the newest and most modern Lufthansa long-haul fleet was earmarked for December 1, but the new cabin was completed ahead of schedule. From the end of November, all the benefits and comfort of Premium Economy Class can be enjoyed by passengers on the Boeing 747-8. The free baggage allowance, for one, is double that allowed a passenger in Economy Class. For a fee of 25 euros, passengers in the new class can access and relax in comfort in Lufthansa Business lounges prior to take-off. On board, each passenger in Premium Economy will be greeted with a welcome drink. At their seat in the cabin is an upmarket amenity kit with useful accessories, a water bottle and a power socket. Meals will be presented in menus and served on china tableware. Available, too, is an extensive Inflight Entertainment program for passengers to view on a large monitor fitted on the backrest of the seat in front.
Passengers can even upgrade last-minute to available Premium Economy seats at check-in at the airport. The entire Lufthansa long-haul fleet is to be equipped with Premium Economy by late summer 2015 when the retrofit is successively completed on all the long-haul aircraft. Following its installation on the Boeing 747-8 fleet, the new class will be fitted on the airline’s Airbus A380’s.
Copyright Photo: Rob Rindt/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A340-313 D-AIFC (msn 379) of Lufthansa touches down in Vancouver.
Lufthansa aircraft slide show: 