After the successful introduction of an all-business class transatlantic operation last June, Lufthansa is expanding the concept with a further two routes.
Although Lufthansa will not release detailed figures for its 10-month-old experimental Düsseldorf to New York Newark service, operated with a 48-seat Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) by Swiss charter firm Privatair, it says load factors and yields are meeting targets, customer satisfaction is good and that the operation is profitable. The success of the service has prompted the carrier to launch similar daily flights from Munich to Newark from 19 May, and from Düsseldorf to Chicago from 9 June.
These will also be operated by Privatair, but aggressive pricing from Airbus has led the charter firm to select the 48-seat A319 Long Range for the new routes instead of the BBJ, says Greg Thomas, chief executive of Privatair. The aircraft will be leased from CIT Aerospace.
Lufthansa chose the new services after exhaustive route studies, with an essential ingredient being "a business centre at one end and another at the other end" of the route. The Düsseldorf to Chicago service is a new route for the carrier, whereas Munich to Newark will double Lufthansa's business class capacity to New York from Munich as it already flies daily to Kennedy Airport with an A340-300 with 42 business seats.
Lufthansa's expansion of its executive service has prompted renewed interest in the concept from other carriers, says Thomas. Privatair was contacted by 30 airlines about similar operations when Lufthansa first launched its service, and entered serious route and pricing studies with six of them, he says. But they were content to take a "wait-and-see attitude" over the concept, to see if it worked. It appears that uncertainties over the Middle East situation are blocking other carriers from going ahead at present.
Source: Airline Business
