Lufthansa Set to Fly to 204 Destinations in 81 Countries

Lufthansa said the number of flights and destinations in its summer timetable for 2010 will remain virtually unchanged -- though fleet renewal marginally increases seat capacities. In the coming summer flight schedules, Lufthansa is serving an almost unchanged number of destinations with virtually the same number of flights as in the previous year. Seating capacity will be slightly higher.

On average, Lufthansa will operate 12,853 flights weekly in the summer schedules compared with 12,860 last summer. Despite a smaller fleet, available seating capacity is higher than the year-earlier level following successive fleet renewal and the replacement of older aircraft by larger types.

This effect is evident in both the continental and intercontinental fleet. Capacity overall (available seat-kilometers) is up year-on-year by 3.6 percent. Included in the calculation are the planned services with the Airbus A380, which is to begin scheduled flights with Lufthansa from June this year.

Lufthansa is serving 204 destinations in 81 countries in the summer timetable (compared to the prior year’s figures of 206 destinations in 78 countries). Six newcomers in the flight schedules are Rostock-Laage, Bari, Palermo, Zadar, Chisinau and Tashkent. Services in Europe have been marginally reduced to 11,445 flights weekly to German and European destinations (versus 11,519 flights in 2009). In contrast, flights in the long-haul, intercontinental network have been increased to a weekly 1,408 flights (versus 1,341 flights weekly in 2009).

Lufthansa has included a new destination in a virtually unchanged timetable of flights in the long-haul network. Starting March 28, the airline will be operating thrice-weekly flights with its PrivatAir partner from Munich to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Furthermore, thrice-weekly flights with an Airbus A330 are to be resumed from Munich to Miami in addition to the existing connections from Frankfurt and Dusseldorf. Nonstop flights from Munich to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia will be increased from two to three weekly, alongside the daily flight from Frankfurt. Lufthansa is also considering several new flight connections to Iraq (Baghdad, Erbil).

One of the highlights in the summer flight schedules are Lufthansa’s inaugural services with the Airbus A380. According to current planning, the world’s largest passenger aircraft will commence scheduled flights in the airline’s intercontinental route network from June 2010. The first A380 destinations will be named at the beginning of April. Bookings can then commence for the first flights with the new Lufthansa flagship.

Lufthansa said it has optimized its timetable in Germany and Europe with four new destinations and 15 additional connections. Daily flights from the Munich hub to Chisinau, the capital of Moldowa in south-eastern Europe, will be available starting April 22. Also new in the timetable are Rostock/Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, as well as Zadar/Croatia and Bari/Italy on the Adriatic. These destinations will be served nonstop from Munich – Bari with daily flights, Zadar with flights on Saturdays, Rostock with flights on Saturdays and Sundays.

Some new European destinations will be served in summer with flights from further German airports in addition to the existing connections. Tallinn, capital of Estonia, for example, will be served for the first time nonstop from Munich. The number of nonstop connections ex Dusseldorf has been raised by six: Athens/Greece, Edinburgh/Great Britain, Gdansk/Poland, Dubrovnik/Croatia, Lisbon/Portugal and Naples/Italy. In the summer timetable, passengers can fly nonstop from Stuttgart to Athens and Manchester in the U.K. Daily flights are also available between Dresden and Milan/Malpensa in northern Italy. Naples will be served daily from Frankfurt alongside connections from Dusseldorf, Munich and Milan.

Lufthansa Italia is expanding its route network out of Milan/-Malpensa with flights in summer to Warsaw and Stockholm as well as the Italian destinations of Palermo (new in the timetable) and Olbia. All in all, the Milan-based carrier will then be offering 172 flights weekly to 13 destinations in Italy and Europe. For economic reasons, Lufthansa has in recent months discontinued connections to Balaton/Hungary, Berne/Switzerland (henceforth as code-share destination), Hof-Plauen (henceforth as code-share destination), Rønne/Denmark as well as the intra-Asian tag-flight from Seoul to Shenyang/China.