Route of the month - London to Frankfurt

Alex McWhirter looks at how new services can benefit business travellers. This month: options from London to Frankfurt.

Lufthansa’s new Gatwick-Frankfurt route provides a new option for travellers located south of London, besides strengthening Germany’s banking capital as a global gateway. While the UK agonises over building a third runway at Heathrow, Frankfurt has just gone ahead and opened its fourth. It is this extra runway that has created the capacity for both Lufthansa’s Gatwick route and an additional return evening service out of Heathrow (to Frankfurt). There seems little doubt that this new capacity will enable Frankfurt to power ahead of Heathrow. Right now, the airport handles 56 million passengers (Heathrow deals with 65 million), with the total forecasted to rise to 88 million by 2020. With two runways, Heathrow will find it difficult to handle more than its current 469,000 flights a year. Meanwhile, with the luxury of four, Frankfurt’s capacity can rise from its current 500,000 movements to 700,000, says its operator Fraport AG – although a third terminal (now in the planning stage) will be needed to cope with this growth. Heathrow will be able to increase the number of passengers it handles, but that means using larger, rather than smaller, planes and dropping some underperforming routes. But, moving on from Heathrow’s future, what are the options for Frankfurt-bound flyers? Gatwick-Frankfurt Lufthansa used to fly out of Gatwick to both Frankfurt and Berlin Tegel during the 1990s, so this twice-daily service marks a welcome return after a gap of almost 20 years. It is using a 120-seat B737-500 on the route. The timings from the German end suit daytrippers, whereas those out of Gatwick are aimed at transit passengers. Between them, the morning and evening flights link to key business destinations around the world. Flight LH897 departs Gatwick at 0945 to arrive into Frankfurt at 1220, with flight LH899 at 1740 offering a 2015 arrival. Inbound flight LH896 leaves Frankfurt at 0845 to land into Gatwick at 0910, with LH898 at 1625 offering a landing at 1650. Return fares are priced upwards of £90 for economy with business class from £520. The middle seat in business class is unsold. London City-Frankfurt Here’s where passengers receive a better product, but note that the prices can reflect this. Lufthansa operates four flights with 116-seat Embraer 195s and 100-seat 190s as against British Airways’ three flights with 76-seat Embraer 170s. Both configure their planes 2-2. The difference comes in the business class seating configuration. Whereas British Airways will fill all of its seats, should the demand be there, Lufthansa takes a different tack. Passengers in business class will find their adjacent seat remains unsold, which results in a 1-1 layout. Economy fares with Lufthansa are upwards of £110, while with BA the price is from about £150. Business class starts at £540 and £350, respectively. Heathrow-Frankfurt Here’s where the competition is fiercest. Lufthansa flies 12 times daily as against BA’s eight. Both carriers operate a mixture of Airbuses and Boeings, with the middle seat unsold in business class. Economy fares range from £100 for Lufthansa and £130 for BA, with business class at £530 and £445, respectively. Stansted-Frankfurt Hahn This is the weakest link. Ryanair’s service has been cut back over the years and is of limited use, unless travellers find either of these airports convenient – or need the cheapest prices. This is because Stansted is 55km and Hahn 120km outside London and Frankfurt respectively. At quiet times, you can pay as little as £40 for a return ticket before adding fees for baggage check and administration.