Category Archives: Lufthansa

Lufthansa Group extends repatriation flight schedule until May 31

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Due to continuing national and international travel restrictions, Lufthansa’s repatriation flight schedule will preliminary be extended until May 31. Some connections will also be included in this timetable. Lufthansa is thus guaranteeing an important minimum level of air traffic connections and contributing to the provision of basic services.

As of May 18, Lufthansa will be operating flights from Frankfurt to Athens (Greece), Porto (Portugal) and Gothenburg (Sweden) in its reduced repatriation flight schedule. The airline’s domestic flights from Munich will be doubled. All destinations can be called up daily on lufthansa.com.

Lufthansa is thus offering a total of 15 weekly long-haul connections: three times a week each from Frankfurt to Newark and Chicago (both USA), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tokyo (Japan). In addition, Lufthansa is now offering 330 weekly flights from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the most important cities in Germany and Europe instead of the previous 280.

Originally, the already greatly reduced flight schedule was valid until May 17. As of today, the additional cancellations will be implemented successively and passengers will be informed of the changes.

Swiss, too, will continue to offer three weekly long-haul flights a week to Newark (USA) from Zurich and Geneva, in addition to a substantially minimised timetable for short- and medium-haul services to selected European cities.

Eurowings will continue to provide basic services at Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne airports with a skeleton programme, offering domestic flights within Germany and connections to selected European destinations.

Austrian Airlines has to extend the suspension of its regular scheduled flight operations once again – by a further two weeks from May 18, 2020 to May 31.

In addition, Brussels Airlines is extending the temporary suspension of its flights further until May 31.

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled or who have been unable to take their flight can keep their ticket and rebook for a new travel date – by April 30, 2021 at the latest – and, if necessary, a new destination by August 31, 2020. If they start their journey before December 31, 2020, they will receive an additional reduction of 50 EUR for rebooking. This can be obtained in the form of a flight voucher online via the airlines’ websites.

Lufthansa temporarily decommissions Airbus A340-600 fleet

Three Airbus A340-600 have already been transferred to Spain

In the coming weeks, Lufthansa will temporarily decommission the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet.

Three aircraft of this type (D-AIHC, D-AIHE and D-AIHF) have already been flown to Teruel, in northeastern Spain. The long-haul aircraft will be parked at the airport there.

Lufthansa plans to transfer the entire Airbus A340-600 fleet, equaling 17 aircraft, to Teruel where they will be decommissioned over the next 2-3 months. These aircraft will not be operating within of the regular scheduled services for at least the next one to one and a half years.

A decision on the future use of the aircraft or a possible reactivation of a maximum of ten aircraft will be taken at a later stage in time.

Photo: European Space Imaging.

Teruel Airport is located between Zaragoza and Valencia in the northeast of Spain. With around 240 days of sunshine a year and little rainfall, the region is particularly suitable for parked aircraft.

Above Copyright Photo: Lufthansa Airbus A340-642 D-AIHC (msn 523) FRA (Paul Bannwarth). Image: 930900.

Note; All 17 Lufthansa Airbus A340-600s are currently grounded, pending their 14 ferry flights to Tereul. Most of the fleet operated their last revenue flights in March 2020. The last revenue flight (for now) was flight LH773 between Bangkok and the Frankfurt hub, arriving at 6:13 am (0613) on April 5, 2020 with D-AIHC.

Lufthansa aircraft slide show:

Lufthansa brings home thousands of vacationers from New Zealand

Lufthansa made this announcement:

Lufthansa is bringing vacationers home on behalf of the Federal Foreign Office from New Zealand back to Europe. Five Airbus A380s with 509 seats each and five Boeing 747s with 371 seats each flew from Auckland and Christchurch, the country’s two largest cities, departing from Frankfurt during the week. A total of 210 crew members are making their way to the island state in the South Pacific to bring vacationers back home. The flights go from Auckland and Christchurch to Bangkok and then on to Frankfurt. The crew will change in Bangkok in order to be able to comply with the prescribed rest periods. A crew has flown ahead for this.

The first two flights arrived in Frankfurt on the night of Tuesday April 7th and Wednesday April 8th. Flight LH355, a Boeing 747 with the registration D-ABVP, arrived in Frankfurt at 11:30 p.m. from Christchurch. An A380 with the registration D-AIMC, arrived an hour later from Auckland under flight number LH357.

Numerous Lufthansa employees have volunteered to take care of the 900 passengers at night and provide them with snacks and drinks. The arrival of the returnees is being prepared together with Fraport, the Federal police and the health department.

A Boeing 747 had already picked up Lufthansa travelers from Auckland a week ago.

Since mid-March, the Lufthansa Group airlines have flown back over 70,000 vacationers to their home country from 77 airports on all five continents with 360 special flights. 55 more flights are currently in preparation.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group decides on first restructuring package, will retire 18 wide bodies

Lufthansa Group made this announcement:

Significant decline in air travel also expected for period after the Coronavirus crisis
Suspension of aircraft leads to the first permanent capacity reduction
The inevitable downsizing of flight operations shall be implemented in a socially responsible manner, among other things, through collective employment models

The Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG does not expect the aviation industry to return to pre-coronavirus crisis levels very quickly. According to its assessment, it will take months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels. Based on this evaluation, today the Executive Board has decided on extensive measures to reduce the capacity of flight operations and administration long term.

The decisions taken will affect almost all flight operations of the Lufthansa Group.

Above Copyright Photo: Lufthansa Airbus A380-841 D-AIMG (msn 069) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 946766.

At Lufthansa, six Airbus A380s and seven A340-600s as well as five Boeing 747-400s will be permanently decommissioned. In addition, eleven Airbus A320s will be withdrawn from short-haul operations.

The six A380s were already scheduled for sale to Airbus in 2022. The decision to phase out seven A340-600s and five Boeing 747-400s was taken based on the environmental as well as economic disadvantages of these aircraft types. With this decision, Lufthansa will be reducing capacity at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

Furthermore, Lufthansa Cityline will also withdraw three Airbus A340-300 aircraft from service. Since 2015, the regional carrier has been operating flights to long-haul tourist destinations for Lufthansa.

Eurowings will also be reducing the number of its aircraft. In the short-haul segment, an additional ten Airbus A320s are planned to be phased out.

Eurowings long-haul business which is run under the commercial responsibility of Lufthansa, will also be reduced.

In addition, the implementation of Eurowings objective of bundling flight operations into only one unit, which was defined before the crisis, will now be accelerated. Germanwings flight operations will be discontinued. All options resulting from this are to be discussed with the respective unions.

The restructuring programs already initiated at Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines will be further intensified due to the coronavirus crisis. Among other things, both companies are working on reducing their fleets. SWISS International Air Lines will also adjust its fleet size by delaying deliveries of new short haul aircraft and consider early phase-outs of older aircraft.

In addition, the Lufthansa Group airlines have already terminated almost all wet lease agreements with other airlines.

The aim remains the same for all employees affected by the restructuring measures: to offer as many people as possible continued employment within the Lufthansa Group. Therefore, talks with unions and workers councils are to be arranged quickly to discuss, among other things, new employment models in order to keep as many jobs as possible.

Lufthansa aircraft slide show:

Lufthansa Group extends returnee flight schedule until May 3, 2020

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Due to the continuing travel restrictions, Lufthansa has decided to extend its returnee flight schedule, which was originally scheduled to run until April 19, until May 3, 2020. This also means that all remaining flights of the original flight schedule between April 25 and May 3 will be cancelled. Flights which were planned to operate until April 24 were cancelled at an earlier date. As of April 2, 2020, the route cancellations will be implemented successively and the passengers affected will be informed of the changes.

Lufthansa will thus continue to offer an urgently needed basic service. A total of 18 weekly long-haul flights are scheduled: three times a week each from Frankfurt to Newark and Chicago (both USA), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand) and Tokyo (Japan). Flights to Johannesburg (South Africa) had to be cancelled by April 16 due to official regulations. In addition, the airline still offers around 50 daily connections from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to the most important cities in Germany and Europe.

Swiss, too, will in future offer three weekly long-haul services a week to Newark (USA) from Zurich and Geneva, in addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul timetable focusing on selected European cities.

In addition to the regularly scheduled services, the airlines in the Lufthansa Group (Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Edelweiss) have been operating more than 300 special flights since March 13, taking some 60,000 holiday makers back to their home countries of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. Around 45 further flights are already in preparation. Clients are and have been tour operators, cruise lines and governments.

In addition to regular cargo flights, the Lufthansa Group has already operated 22 pure cargo special flights with relief supplies on board. A further 34 special cargo flights are already planned.

Passengers whose flights have been cancelled or who were unable to take their flight can keep their booking and do not have to commit to a new flight date for the time being. The ticket and ticket value remain unchanged and can be converted into a voucher for a new booking with a departure date up to and including 30 April 2021. The conversion into a voucher is possible online via the airlines’ websites. Customers who choose a new travel date up to and including 31 December 2020 will also receive a 50 Euro discount on every rebooking.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa agrees on short-time work

Lufthansa has made this announcement:

More than 27,000 employees of Deutsche Lufthansa AG will be affected by short-time work
Agreements applies to cockpit, cabin and ground staff
Agreement with pilots union “Vereinigung Cockpit” pending
The Supervisory Board, Executive Board and Management have voluntarily waived part of their salary

Lufthansa has signed agreements with its works council and trade unions to introduce short-time working for cabin and ground staff in Frankfurt and Munich. This also applies to the management. An agreement with the pilots union “Vereinigung Cockpit” has not yet been reached.

The extent of reduced working hours is determined for employees depending on the loss of work and can be up to 100 percent. For some of the employees, reduced working hours began retrospectively in March 2020. The agreements apply to at least 27,000 employees of the approximately 35,000 employees of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

“With short-time working, we want to secure jobs of our employees in these difficult and unusual times. Our goal remains trying to avoid redundancies. The agreement of short-time work is an essential prerequisite for this. We will have to constantly review the economic parameters,” says Michael Niggemann, Chief Officer Corporate Human Resources and Legal Affairs at Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Based on the current agreements, Lufthansa for the time being is increasing the short-time working allowance up to 90 per cent of the net salary lost through short-time working. How long Deutsche Lufthansa AG can pay these top-up amounts depends largely on the duration of the crisis.

In solidarity with all employee groups, the Lufthansa Supervisory Board, Executive Board and Management will also participate in the measures. The members of the Supervisory Board have voluntarily waived 25 percent of their compensation, the members of the Executive Board have waived 20 percent and managers not affected by short-time working have waived between 10 and 15 percent of their monthly basic compensation. The voluntary waiver of remuneration for the Supervisory Board, board members and all managers in Germany will apply from April 1, 2020 for at least a period of six months until the end of September.

The proposal to discontinue the dividend for the 2019 financial year will further help in securing liquidity of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

More than 30 companies in the Lufthansa Group, whose employees have German employment contracts, have already or will gradually fall under reduced working hours. These measures also come in effect for airlines in the Lufthansa Group in Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa and Eurowings introduce further physical distancing measures

Lufthansa has made this announcement:

Neighbouring seat blocked on all flights from Germany
Arrivals and departures only at gate positions in Germany where possible
New measures coordinated between German Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer and Carsten Spohr, CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG

Lufthansa and Eurowings are introducing further measures to ensure physical distance between passengers during their journey. From tomorrow, March 27, 2020, neighboring seats on board in Economy Class and Premium Economy will be blocked and remain free on all flights from Germany. This also applies to flights within Germany.

This regulation does not apply on flights to Germany, because the airlines top priority remains returning as many people as possible to their home country.

In addition, from now on all Lufthansa and Eurowings flights at domestic airports will only be handled at building positions wherever possible given the existing airport infrastructure and official regulations. This measure intends to help pas-sengers avoid having to take bus trips. Where this is not possible at short notice, twice as many buses will be operating, which has also been the case for the last few days.

Both measures will apply until April 19, 2020.

Lufthansa and Eurowings have already taken numerous measures to increase the distance between passengers along the entire travel chain, for example at check-in counters or when boarding and disembarking from the aircraft. The service on board has also been adapted regarding the current physical distancing measures.

Eurowings aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group publishes flight schedule for returnees

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Lufthansa Group Airlines’ flight schedule geared to returnees
Return flight schedule initially valid until 19.4.
Lufthansa Group provides 920,000 face masks to health authorities

From the beginning of next week, a return flight schedule will be in effect for the airlines in the Lufthansa Group. This will initially be valid until April 19, 2020.

Harry Hohmeister, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG: “This situation has a historic dimension. Hardly anyone wants to or is currently allowed to travel. That is why our returnee flight schedule is now essentially geared to the needs of European citizens who want to return to their home countries. We are now flying as many people home as possible!”

The intercontinental return flight schedule in detail

Long-haul flights are offered as scheduled from Frankfurt and Zurich. Lufthansa’s intercontinental flight schedule from Frankfurt is as follows: three times a week to Newark, Chicago (both USA), Montreal (Canada), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bangkok (Thailand), Tokyo (Japan) and Johannesburg (South Africa).

In addition to a substantially reduced short- and medium-haul timetable (48 services from Zurich), Swiss will in future offer three weekly long-haul flights to Newark (USA).

Lufthansa’s short- and medium-haul schedules

From its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa still offers around 40 daily connections to the most important cities in Germany and Europe.

Short and medium-haul flight schedule of Eurowings

Eurowings flight program focuses on the basic supply of the airports of Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne.

Special flights for governments and tourism companies

In order to bring as many people as possible back home quickly, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group are currently operating numerous special flights all over the world in close consultation with the governments of their respective home countries and on behalf of tourism companies. With around 130 extra flights operated by Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Edelweiss, around 25,000 passengers have so far flown home. Around 100 further flights are already being prepared.

Renunciation of the use of face masks

The Lufthansa Group is waiving the purchase of more than 920,000 permanently ordered face masks and making them available to the health authorities. In this way, the company assumes social responsibility and supports medical facilities that urgently need these masks. The Group has a sufficient quantity of masks in stock for Lufthansa Group employees.

In addition, Lufthansa Group employees who have completed medical training can now be released quickly and unbureaucratically on a voluntary basis for specific work in a medical facility.

Lufthansa takes its social responsibility seriously: employees with medical training are released from work to help

Lufthansa made this announcement:

Employees with medical vocational training can now volunteer for service in medical facilities
Lufthansa meets special social responsibility in a difficult situation

The spread of the coronavirus has placed the entire world in an unprecedented state of emergency. At present, no one can foresee what further consequences will ensue. What is certain, however, is that additional medical personnel will be needed. As a large German company, Lufthansa is living up to its social responsibility even in this exceptional situation. Employees who have completed medical training can now be released quickly and unbureaucratically on a voluntary basis for specific work in a medical facility. Further details are currently being worked out.

The Group also takes its responsibility seriously on another level: in order to bring as many people as possible back home quickly, the Lufthansa Group airlines also operate numerous special flights all over the world. In close consultation with the governments of their home markets and on behalf of tourism companies and cruise lines, Lufthansa Group airlines are currently offering around 140 special flights. More than 20,000 passengers are thus flying home with Lufthansa, Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Edelweiss. Further special flights will follow in the next few days. In addition, the Lufthansa Group is making every effort to ensure that the flow of cargo in Germany and Europe does not come to a standstill. Lufthansa Cargo continues to fly its regular program, except for cancellations to mainland China, and keeps the entire freighter fleet in the air.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery:

Lufthansa Group airlines continue operating to the USA

Lufthansa Group has made this announcement:

Chicago, Newark (New York) and Washington will still be served
Special flight schedule for the USA will be available soon
Flight operations to Canada continue unchanged
The impact of the changes in the entry regulations for India is currently being assessed
Customers are asked to check their current flight status on lufthansa.com, swiss.com, austrian.com or brusselsairlines.com

Despite the new travel guidelines ordered by the US administration on passengers from the European Union, Switzerland and other countries, Lufthansa Group Airlines will continue to offer flights to the USA from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.

The Lufthansa Group will continue operating flights from Frankfurt to Chicago and Newark (New York), from Zurich to Chicago and Newark (New York), from Vienna to Chicago, and from Brussels to Washington beyond March 14, 2020, thus maintaining at least some air traffic connections to the USA from Europe. The airlines are currently working on an alternative flight schedule for the USA. Passengers will still be able to reach all destinations within the USA via the U.S. hubs and connecting flights served by partner airline, United Airlines.

In addition, all other U.S. flights will be suspended until further notice due to U.S. administration restrictions, including all departures from Munich, Düsseldorf and Geneva. The Lufthansa Group will continue to serve all destinations in Canada until further notice.

As planned, the Lufthansa Group’s airlines are offering 313 connections to 21 destinations in the USA from Europe in the winter schedule, which is still valid until March 28, 2020.

The impact on the Lufthansa Group flight program due to the recently changed entry regulations for India is currently being evaluated.

Lufthansa passengers planning a trip over the next few weeks are advised to check the status of the respective flight on lufthansa.com, swiss.com, austrian.com or brusselsairlines.com before embarking on their journey. Guests who have provided Lufthansa with their contact details will be informed if their flight is cancelled.

Lufthansa aircraft photo gallery: