Lufthansa is tightening its focus on Asia and the US next summer with the introduction of two new routes along with three A380 deployments to destinations in both continents.

Notably for business travellers within Asia-Pacific, the German carrier’s summer 2018 schedule will see the resurrection of its Munich-Singapore service. Lufthansa had previously cut the route in October 2012 due to lack of capacity at Munich at the time and the high fuel costs of the A340 that it previously deployed on the route. 

The new service is set to take off on March 27, 2018 and will fly the route five times weekly. Lufthansa will be deploying its A350 on the route, which it first rolled out in February this year.

The revival of the Munich-Singapore route likely ties in with Lufthansa’s joint venture with Singapore Airlines, which came into effect in April and aims to expand codeshare ties and align the airlines’ corporate programmes in response to growing competition from rival Gulf airlines.

The Star Alliance member has been particularly active on this front, even partnering with rival oneworld Alliance member Cathay Pacific on codeshare and frequent flyer programme services in order to enhance its connectivity between Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Both of these partnerships will allow Lufthansa (and its subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Swiss) to feed travellers from Europe into its main Frankfurt and Munich hubs and onward to Singapore and Hong Kong, where travellers can then make use of Singapore Airlines’ and Cathay Pacific’s extensive Asia-Pacific networks.

Indeed, along with the revival of its Munich-Singapore route, Lufthansa will be deploying its A380 on three of its Munich services next summer – Hong Kong, Beijing and Los Angeles. The airline began flying its A380 to Hong Kong back in October 2015 on its Frankfurt-Hong Kong route. In total, five of Lufthansa’s 14 A380s will be transferred from Frankfurt to Munich in order to serve these routes.

“With the A380 we can offer our Munich customers a premium aircraft at a five-star hub,” said Harry Hohmeister, an executive board member of Deutsche Lufthansa AG who is also responsible for hub management. “In recent years, we have made great progress in steering our hubs. We harmonised and integrated processes and are now more flexible in utilising our aircraft at different locations. Quality, efficiency and growth will always remain our top priority.”

Meanwhile, the deployment of the A380 on its Munich-Los Angeles route will be joined next summer by the addition of a brand new route between Frankfurt and San Francisco. This new route hasn’t got an exact confirmed start date at this time, though Business Traveller Asia-Pacific has confirmed that it will be flying its A340-300 on the route, which it will operate five times weekly.

Finally, Lufthansa’s summer 2018 schedule includes another change to its US services, namely an increase of flights from Munich to Chicago. The airline’s current daily service is set to become a 10-times weekly one.

lufthansa.com