After October 14, Lufthansa will drop its direct flight between Munich and Jakarta which stops en route in Singapore.
Currently Lufthansa serves both Asian cities five times a week from Munich with an A340-300.
“We regret that Lufthansa will no longer connect these two Asian cities with Munich,” says Thomas Kluehr, the Executive Board member in charge of Munich Services.
Lufthansa says that Munich-originating passengers bound for Singapore will now have to route via Frankfurt.
As noted above, Jakarta is dropped completely from the Lufthansa network. So Lufthansa passengers bound for the Indonesian capital after October 14 have a more complicated journey. They must take Lufthansa via Frankfurt to Singapore and then link with SIA for the final leg to Jakarta.
Reasons behind the flight cancellation include a lack of capacity at Munich (a planned third runway was recently cancelled), the A340’s high fuel consumption, competition from SIA (which flies daily Munich-Singapore with onward connections) and ever fiercer competition from the Gulf carriers (see online news March 19).
For an in-depth look at the impact of higher fuel costs on aviation see the June edition of Business Traveller magazine, also available online here.
For more information visit lufthansa.com.
Report by Alex McWhirter
