2023-07-12 17:42:39
The storm of indignation comes with a delay. Deutsche Lufthansa has announced that it intends to offer more domestic flights again. Lufthansa “accelerates the climate crisis” with an “idiotic approach”, accuse users of the group on the online network Twitter. The managers, whom some writers even see as part of a “fossil mafia”, “apparently the heat went to their heads,” it says.
Trigger: “Day trips within Germany have become fewer, but the need is still there,” sales manager Frank Naeve said in an interview. “We are currently analyzing this in detail and will gear our sales activities to it and make short-haul flights attractive again.” travel agencies – almost two weeks ago. In the meantime, the statements have reached a larger public.
Lufthansa announced a turnaround that is less of a surprise within the industry. With the pandemic, the group had reduced domestic flights. To date, there has not been a return to the pre-crisis level, which is due to a variety of staff shortages. At Fraport at Frankfurt Airport, 96 take-offs and landings per hour are currently permitted, in the meantime there have been fewer, in 2019 106 was the upper limit. Lufthansa canceled short flights for which trains can be an alternative. In 2022, Deutsche Bahn was brought on board as an intermodal partner for the Star Alliance.
Much fewer domestic flights than before Corona
According to the industry association BDL, domestic air traffic is 57 percent of the pre-crisis level. For flights to other European countries, the figure is 88 percent. The train, meanwhile, causes dissatisfaction among travelers with delays. There is no information from aviation on how many passengers missed a flight. Criticism of the railway is not expressed, internally it is sometimes said that it is not politically appropriate. Among the Lufthansa critics on Twitter, there were also voices that approved of the domestic plans.
In the meantime, there was no risk for Lufthansa that other airlines would fly within Germany. The low-cost airlines Ryanair and Easyjet have withdrawn. Ryanair explained that the local market was not attractive because of high fees, and that it was expanding elsewhere. A stroke of luck for Lufthansa: For scarce domestic tickets, it can sometimes charge three times the normal price for the train. Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary recently indicated a rethink. When the third Frankfurt terminal opens in 2026, it is now possible to return there.
Jochen Remmert Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Corinna Budras Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3 Timo Kotowski and Thiemo Heeg Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 22
Lufthansa is likely to react to another challenge. Industry insiders describe the competition for long-distance travel beginning with a short feeder as much greater compared to the competition on routes between hubs. If you want to travel from Frankfurt to another continent, you often only have the choice between Lufthansa and providers from the destination region. If you want to go to the USA from Berlin, you can also take Air France, KLM or British Airways – via Paris, Amsterdam or London. An indication of the tougher competition is that connections with feeders and transfers sometimes cost less than long-distance flights alone.
According to Deutsche Bahn and BDL, only 400,000 passengers took advantage of the option of traveling by train to Frankfurt on one ticket and then on a Lufthansa plane in 2019. In 2022 it should be a quarter more. In 2022, Frankfurt Airport counted a total of almost 49 million passengers taking off and landing. From the point of view of aviation, one obstacle is that travelers – in addition to possible delays – also have to plan time for checking in their luggage and going through the security check when changing planes.
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