Sunday 10 March 2013

Lufthansa 2013 European Summer Schedule with New Holiday Destinations


16 new connections / 5 new destinations / Business Class retrofit speeded up

Lufthansa is continuing to expand its services to popular leisure travel destinations. The new European summer timetable includes five new attractive holiday destinations: Mahón, Jerez de la Frontera, Cardiff, Glasgow and Varna. In the long-haul segment, Lufthansa is launching a new service from Munich to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada in addition to the existing connection from Frankfurt. From July, passengers travelling through Europe will also be able to book and experience the new product and fare concept for Germanwings, which will gradually take over Lufthansa's point-to-point routes. In the European summer timetable, Lufthansa customers will have a choice of flights to 218 Lufthansa destinations in 82 countries (previous year: 216 destinations in 83 countries). The European summer timetable runs from Sunday, 31 March to Saturday, 26 October 2013.

New attractive holiday destinations
Whether a beach vacation or discovery tour or a city break - passengers can enjoy the full service of a scheduled airline when they fly with Lufthansa to their holiday destination. Five attractive seasonal destinations, which will be served during the summer months of Europe, have been added to the timetable:
  • A new service is planned to the Balearic island of Menorca, the smaller sister island of Mallorca. Non-stop flights from Munich, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin will land in Mahón, the capital of Menorca.
  • The Andalusian city of Jerez de la Frontera in the Spanish holiday region of Costa de la Luz will be served this European summer from Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.
  • The Bulgarian resort of Varna on the Black Sea is another new, sun-blessed destination that will be served from Düsseldorf.
  • Flights to two new British destinations will also depart from Düsseldorf: Cardiff, the capital of Wales, is an ideal starting point for holidays on the coast or in the Welsh mountains.
Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland, is renowned for its vibrant arts scene as well as for its architecture and design. The spectacular scenery in the Scottish Highlands makes Glasgow a popular destination for discovery tours. This route will be served all year round. This European summer, vacationers will benefit from a further six new connections to holiday regions around the Mediterranean. These, combined with existing summer destinations, will at times bring to 25 the number of seasonal destinations in Lufthansa's route network, most of which will be served from several airports in Germany. In July and August, the number of flights to holiday destinations will be further increased. Passengers who wish to book a flight to one of the above-mentioned tourist destinations plus a hotel and a rental car with a single mouse click can put together a complete holiday package through the holiday portal
(www.lufthansaholidays.com).

Vancouver now served from Munich
Lufthansa is expanding its long-haul services. This European summer, it is introducing a new route from Munich to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada to complement its existing service from Frankfurt. From 16 May 2013, the new route to the largest city in British Columbia will be served daily with an Airbus A330. Vancouver is a major centre for trade and commerce. It also has Canada's largest seaport and is home to the headquarters of numerous forestry and mining companies. Many IT companies have settled in the surrounding region. In addition, Vancouver is a popular tourist and holiday destination.

Business Class retrofit being speeded up
Lufthansa is speeding up the retrofit of its new Business Class cabin. It is already installed on all recently delivered Boeing 747-8s and on three Airbus A330 aircraft. However, the previous Business Class product will now be replaced sooner than originally planned on all Lufthansa's existing long-haul aircraft. Lufthansa is investing a further 50 million euros in converting all its aircraft by the European summer of 2015 at the latest. "Our new Business Class has had an excellent response from customers. We are therefore speeding up the retrofit and have set aside 50 million euros for this purpose in addition to the refitting costs. By 2015, we will have installed new seats across our long-haul fleet - not only in Economy and First Class, but also in Business Class," Jens Bischof explains.

FlyNet now available almost worldwide
To date, Lufthansa has equipped 88 aircraft, and thus virtually its entire long-haul fleet, with FlyNet, its broadband Internet service. The only exceptions are a few Boeing 747-8s and Airbus A380s, and next year these aircraft types are also due to be equipped with the innovative technology. FlyNet is now available almost worldwide, except in the airspace over China, as a broadcast licence has not yet been granted. The "Sport 24" channel in the free FlyNet portal offers live TV at the highest level. Passengers can now also check the status of their connecting flight on the portal or check in while they are still in the air.

New Boeing 747-8 service to Hong Kong
The latest addition to the Lufthansa fleet, the Boeing 747-8, has rapidly become a favourite among Lufthansa passengers. The "Queen of the Skies" is currently deployed on routes to Washington and Los Angeles, as well as to Bangalore and Delhi in India. At the start of the European summer timetable, Lufthansa is due to accept further deliveries of this state-of-the-art, 3 / 3 environmentally friendly jumbo. This year, Lufthansa will take delivery of five new Boeing B747-8s from Seattle. At the end of March, Frankfurt - Hong Kong will become the next route to switch to the new aircraft.

Germanwings taking over routes from Lufthansa
At the start of the European summer timetable, Germanwings is taking over a total of six of the pointto- point services that up to now have been operated by Lufthansa, starting with the routes from Hamburg to Vienna, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Dubrovnik, Nice and Palma de Mallorca. From 1 July of this year, further routes will gradually be operated by the new Germanwings. Customers and the general public will be informed in good time. Passengers who have already booked a Lufthansa flight that is transferred to Germanwings will be automatically rebooked on Germanwings. All Lufthansa's intra-European routes that are not routed through the airline's Frankfurt and Munich hubs are due to be taken over by Germanwings, which will offer new, attractive fares.

With the introduction of the 2013 European summer timetable, Lufthansa is withdrawing its services to Perm and Kazan in Russia for financial reasons. At the same time, however, the airline is increasing frequencies on its routes to Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. This European summer, the Lufthansa Group airlines - Austrian, Brussels, Germanwings, Lufthansa and SWISS - will together serve 285 destinations in 102 countries on four continents from their hubs in Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich. They will also complement each other's services by offering numerous codeshare flights.

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