Airline Post » lufthansa

JAL – World’s most on-time airline

Dave — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:12:31 +0000

Japanese are famous for their fast trains that are precisely on-time and, as of recently, their airline services. According to records from FlightStats, Japan’s JAL and ANA were named the world’s most on-time airline companies.

Out of Japan Airlines‘ 216,478 flights, 90.95% of them were less than 15 minutes late or on-time. Another Japanese airline, ANA, comes in second, with 130,852 flights in 2009 where 90.37% were less than 15 minutes late. Here’s the rest of the airlines from the top 10, according to Forbes.com.

3. SAS (Sweden) – 158,572 flights in 2009, 89.11% on-time or less than 15 minutes late
4. Korean Air Lines (Korea) – 133,662 flights, 88.61% on-time or less than 15 minutes late
5. Horizon Air (USA) – 142,094 flights, 85.88% on-time
6. Air Nostrum (Spain) – 119,549 flights, 85.80% on-time
7. Chautauqua Airlines (USA, regional carrier for major American airlines) – 171,026 flights, 84.60% on-time
8. Qantas (Australia) – 153,816 flights, 83.90% on-time
9. Lufthansa (Germany) – 386,205 flights, 83.21% on-time
10. British European, formerly known as Jersey European (U.K.) – 128,360 flights, 82.64% on-time

Lufthansa Airbus wingstrike

Dave — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:26:16 +0000

Here’s something you don’t see very often. An Airbus belonging to Lufthansa suffered a wingstrike while trying to land at the Hamburg airport, on 1 March 2008 during the Emma storm. Luckily, nobody was hurt and the plane landed safely. Here’s footage from the incident:

Win miles to travel around the world

Dave — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:42:47 +0000

Lufthansa, Europe’s leading airline, is getting ready to launch its A380 with an exciting competition. You, the passengers, are invited to suggest a name for the flaship aircraft and entered in the competition to win 1,000,000 miles. The miles from the Lufthansa Miles & More programme are enough to circle the globe twice, in Business Class.

So head on down to their website section dedicated to A380 and name the jumbo jet. There’s also a neat virtual tour you can check out while there!

Lufthansa is the fifth largest airline in the world, in terms of passengers carried and services 183 international destinations in 78 countries.

New look for Lufthansa’s A380

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:05:06 +0000

Today, we’re having a look at a new and shiny Airbus A380. It’s being painted and scheduled to be finished this week. Looking forward to seeing more of it!

Photos taken from here

BMI cuts 600 employees to survive the recession

TC — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:36:22 +0000

BMI recently announced that it may be cutting 600 jobs and closing its final salary pension scheme to about 1,000 existing members, in an attempt to survive the recession.

When Lufthansa bought earlier this year BMI Airline, they didn’t take into account that the company may be facing such major problems. The airline has a permanent of 4,500 workforce and it’s fighting to survive since is forced to shutdown seven services operating out of Europe and nine aircraft from its fleet of 39 planes.

Flights from Heathrow to Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev and Aleppo will be suspended in January. The service from Heathrow to Amsterdam will be also suspended in March 2010. Seasonal services from Heathrow to Palma and Venice will not be reinstated next summer. BMI will continue to offer services from London to Brussels through an arrangement made possible with Brussels Airlines.

Airline analysts believe it could lose as much as £200m this year.

It’s pretty much obvious, that at least for now, BMI has postponed its plans of expanding and entering more markets, blaming the economic slowdown for its problems.

BMI is the second largest airline at London Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest and best-connected international airports. From the Heathrow hub BMI operates services in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. Former known as British Midland, it was rebranded bmi British Midland in 2001, which was subsequently shortened to bmi two years later. In 2002, bmibaby, a low-cost subsidiary with its own unique brand, was launched.

Lufthansa Faces Unexpected Problems

Abbey — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:48:01 +0000

It became known that during the meeting with investors, Lufthansa told that it faced considerable risks concerning its earnings targets. The causes of the problem were fresh oil price rises and weak passenger demand. Shares of Lufthansa decreased by 5.5 per cent to close at €10.37. The German carrier is sure that such situation can be explained by a difficult operating environment.

Lufthansa forecasted that the current situation would remain during the current year. Moreover such airlines as the UK’s BMI British Midland and Austrian Airlines availed recently by Lufthansa would bring negative earnings contributions in the months ahead.

But according to analysts the group’s operating profit was better in comparison with the same period in 2008. Johannes Braun, of Commerzbank, characterized the group profit figure as a “big positive surprise” and hoped that he would be able to see stabilization in yields.

Many consider that despite the fact that the statement of Lufthansa was unexpected, the company made similar allegations in order to make its headline figures public and showed that it could influence on the market.

According to Justin Baer, American Airlines and US Airways decided to take actions in order to cover expenses amid the downturn in air-travel demand. Next year American is going to close an aircraft-maintenance facility in Kansas City and curtail repair stations that will cause to the loss of 700 jobs.

US Airways is considered to be a member of Lufthansa’s Star Alliance of international carriers and was going to intermit services between Philadelphia and five European destinations that would lead to the loss of about 1,000 jobs. The airline also wanted not to use the flight from Philadelphia to Beijing granted by US transport regulators but at the same time it would require to make some improvements in order to retain the option of re-applying in the future.

Lufthansa Europe’s Leading Airline

Abbey — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:47:10 +0000

Founded in 1955, Lufthansa has became over time one of the leading airline companies all over the world. The company has stakes in several major carriers and also it has complete ownership of Austrian and Swiss airlines. A big number of awards were received by Lufthansa. “Best Airline of Europe” is the latest award that was bestowed for its services, fast check-in options, the speed and convenience of its luggage handling and the friendly service offered by its staff.

At the World Travel Awards 2009 that was held in Obidos, Portugal, on 17th October, Lufthansa got the “Europe’s Leading Airline” award. Moreover the World Travel Awards is considered at present to be a prestigious award in the global travel industry. One could say that it is equal to the Oscars.

Lufthansa and Egypt has a long established partnership that was launched 50 years ago and began with the first flight to Cairo. Nowadays Lufthansa has 17 flights every week between Egypt and Germany that connect Cairo two times a day and Alexandria three times a week to Lufthansa’s headquarters in Frankfurt. Swiss Airlines are considered to be another subsidiary of Lufthansa that also has flights between Cairo and Zurich seven times a week.

Lufthansa has been using “Miles and More” for 15 years as the company achieved a lot of success due to this flyer program. The program enables to collect and redeem miles. But still the program is improving all the time and recently Lufthansa redesigned the portal of “Miles and More” with new functions added, i.e. a personal virtual lounge and an intelligent flight award calendar.

As for financial crisis effects, Lufthansa had proved that it was able to manage with difficult times as the company kept profitable and strong. Lufthansa also tries to carry on a solid balance sheet, maintain financial and operational flexibility, management of a strict cost and make investments.

The 5 Most Eco-Friendly Airlines

Stewart — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:41:46 +0000

According to the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the CO2 from aviation accounts for 1.6% of all global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to reach 2.5% by 2050. IATA started the environmental movement for airlines by setting an important and semnificant goal – creating a zero-emissions airplane within 50 years. Last month, the airline industry also made a pledge to halve emissions by 2050 to force the development of a new, greener technology they can use. Some airlines have went further by pioneering new eco-friendly technologies that really make a statement. Here’s our pick for the five most eco-friendly airlines at the moment.

5. Virgin Airlines started its environmental efforts by signing a deal with Boeing that supposes the purchasing a number of eco-friendly aircrafts to use on their routes. The airline will receive 15 787-9 Dreamliners, that use 20% less fuel for every passenger onboard than other planes of a similar size. The new aircrafts will also be able to offer less bumpier takeoffs and landings, cleaner air, larger windows, more storage space and enhanced lighting onboard. Boeing also announced that over 500 787-9 Dreamliner aircrafts were ordered.

4. Continental Airlines replaced a large part of their fleet with planes that are more energy-efficient. The company saved an impressive amount of fuel and reduced emissions by 5%, after installing winglets on all their Boeing 737s and 757s. Moreover, the airline has begin experimenting Boeing 737s flights with bio fuel, which is made from extracts of algae and jartopha plants.

3. easyJet plans on installing new energy-efficient engines on all their Airbus A319s. By doing that, the low cost company intends to cut the mono-nitrogen oxide emissions by 25 percent. By 2015, the Easy Jet officials have in mind reducing noise by 25%, CO2 emissions by 50% and NOx by more than 75%. According to the company’s officials, EasyJet has cut its CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre by 18% since 2002. Their efficiency and use of smaller airports allows easyJet to fly more passengers/flight and emit 27% less carbon per passenger km than regular companies. Here’s a crazy takeoff with an A319:

2. Lufthansa is one of the companies that made a commitment to the environment starting with the 1970s. Now, the airline plans to use at least 10% of bio fuel of the total fuel needed for flying and adopts new technologies and rules that will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 25% until 2020. Lufthansa also has a set of instruments onboard (Mozart) ozone, water vapor, N02 or CO2, which scientist use to understand weather and make forecast more precise. One of the most prominent accomplishments was
growing its traffic annually since ’91 while maintaining its CO2 emissions low. Also, installing 20,000+ lighter seats on aircraft in 2006 saved 12,000 tons of CO2 in one year alone. Here’s a report from DW:

1. Nature Air – What’s more eco-friendly than an airline built on a its 100% carbon neutral aviation program. Nature Air, Costa Rica’s national airline, engages passengers in a carbon offset scheme and a commitment for fuel reduction, both on the ground and in the air. They operate 74 daily flights with 8 aircrafts and improved fuel efficiency by 7% by training their crew, reducing aircrafts’ weight and focusing on flight planning. Nature Air has developed Costa Rica’s only bio-diesel fueling station and aims to become climate neutral by 2021, when the country will celebrate 200 years of independence.

EU regulators object to airline tie-up plans

Dave — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:11:59 +0000

European Union regulators warned British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia Airlines that their plans to share their lucrative trans-Atlantic rules may break antitrust rules. According to the EU, a formal charge was sent to each of the airlines, saying their cooperation may go against the rule that forbids companies engaging in partnerships that shut out rivals.

The airlines said they are planning to apply for antitrust approval from the United States Department of Transportation and that they would also notify the European Union commission. The first effort toward the tie-up was made 12 years ago, when American and British Airways joined their operations.

BA started negotiations with Iberia Airlines, the Spanish carrier, but nothing has been finalized. AA and BA are also considering including Finnair and Royal Jordanian in this partnership.

If they receive the approval, the alliance would service 443 destinations in 106 countries with around 6,300 daily departures. If the deal will get rejected by the EU, the companies may get fined 10% of global annual turnover for forming an illegal cartel.

The EU is also running parallel investigations on other airlines. The Star Alliance (Lufthansa, Continental, United and Air Canada) and SkyTeam (Air France/KLM and Delta/Northwest) are also under its watchful eye. Only airlines alliances that fly trans-Atlantic are currently analyzed.

Even with the alliance of BA, AA and Iberia, these airlines would still be the second-largest airline with 18% of seats, following Delta-Northwest-Air France that own 25%. On Sunday, Virgin announced a $5.6 million marketing campaign against the alliance, including painting 34 of their aircrafts with the message “No Way, AA/BA.” (via Yahoo)