[Anonymous]

[LuganoPirate]

Just came across this.

http://www.news24.com/Travel/Flights/Lufthansa-cancels-Cape-Town-flight-20120704-2

Shows again how government actions can disrupt and be bad for business. If you have to get to FRA, which is a major destination due to banking, finance etc you could be better off routing via ZRH, CDG, AMS etc though I see Swiss and ZRH being the winners!

[AMcWhirter]

This story appeared here earlier today.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/lufthansa-switches-cape-town-from-frankfurt-to–

As you say, gov actions can be bad for business. Airports in SE Asia and the Gulf often do not face the sort of night time curfews that airlines have to meet in Europe.

As for reaching FRA, I would have thought LH would organise good connections over MUC to prevent pax defecting to the rivals you mention.

[Bucksnet]

LH own Swiss, but they don’t fly to Cape Town anyway.

I’ve found MUC to be better than FRA, and I would imagine there would be very regular flights between them.

[AMcWhirter]

It could be that there are no spare departure slots ex-FRA for earlier in the evening.

Another consideration is the fact that the A340 used on this route spends much of the day at CPT before returning to Europe. So having a later departure from FRA means it can spend less time on the ground in CPT.

It seems this 2300 curfew at FRA was a condition of the airport getting its fourth runway.

The new timings from October 28 show a departure from MUC at 2200 with an arrival into CPT at 1035. The flight returns at 1900 to reach MUC at 0535.

I suppose LH cannot schedule a departure from CPT any earlier than 1900 otherwise the flight would fall foul of the MUC morning curfew.

[MartinJ]

“Shows again how government actions can disrupt and be bad for business”. I’m glad Germany has a government that cares about its citizens and not just about big business. 50 Passengers a day being stranded because of a night-time curfew is far outweighed by tens of thousands of residents being able to sleep at night. I’m saying this as a very frequent traveller who is part of the problem himself. Let’s give these people living near the airport a break, at least from 11 to 5.

[capetonianm]

One of the reasons I stopped using LH to travel to and from CPT is because FRA is such an awful airport for transits. MUC is streets ahead and this may get me back to Lufty!

[Bucksnet]

Indeed, LH is likely to get better loads and yields now.

[springbok]

Great news that there is once again a direct flight from Munchen….they did offer a direct flight back in 2008. The AirBerlin MUC-CPT flight was always full, so I expect LH flights to be busy too!. MUC is far easier to transit than FRA.

[AMcWhirter]

Hi charlesQ.

This is interesting. But I wonder how Condor can afford to have one of its planes sitting on the ground at CPT for such a long period of time ?

Yes the FRA curfew will be strictly enforced. LHR, despite its curfew, does allow a very limited number of night flights. I believe the latter are for cargo or for very early arrivals from the Far East. Moreover the curfew is relaxed from time to time when severe weather conditions or unusual circumstances (like the ‘ash cloud’ crisis a couple of years ago) badly disrupt schedules.

[CXDiamond]

Talking to someone from LH, I understand there is slightly more to this than the FRA curfew and as ever it is to do with yield.

CPT is essentially a leisure destination and while the loads are good, the yields are not as good as LH would want for peak time slots at FRA. Hence the move to MUC as most of the traffic is connecting and the reduction in capacity. Now that SAA have pulled the LHR-CPT service this is really the only *A service that does not require a connection in JNB so still a desirable route.

[LHRSENflyer]

Interesting that LH is blaming the night flight ban when they have several late night departures out of FRA which still seem to be running.
Agree with CXDiamond that this is likely to reflect cost-cutting and a focus on yield over revenue.
Also agree with capetonianm that MUC is a far more pleasant transit point, I have recently being choosing JNB over FRA. Does present an interesting situation where award seats have always been nigh impossible to secure that this is only likely to get worse. Soon we all be flying via JNB. Trying out TK later in the year, will see how this goes.
LondonCity, I imagine this Condor scheduling is deliberate so that the same crew is back in hours to operate the return flight?

[Bucksnet]

Most flights from Europe to South Africa fly at night in both directions. This gets a better yield for the airline which probably more than offsets the plane sitting around all day.

[LuganoPirate]

That I am aware, of all the airlines flying direct into CPT from Europe, BA, AF, KLM, VS, LH, Edelweiss, only KLM and Edelweiss offer a day flight down, and BA on the way back. Further Edelweiss fly just 3 times a week (southern summer only) and only Friday’s is a day flight.

The rest offer year round flights (not sure about VS) and all stay on the ground throughout the day as they do into JNB. The many flights I’ve taken to both JNB and CPT have all been full.

Personally I would welcome flights departing Europe earlier so I can make better connections to where I usually fly onto, but of course airline scheduling does not run according to my wishes. By leaving so late they maximise on transit traffic and the reason they stay on the ground all day is due to early morning flight restrictions at home for the return. Something the ME carriers don’t have to contend with.

In my case flying either LH or LX I’m rarely in MXP before 8am. Flying QR I can be there at 6am so my door to door time is actually quicker despite a longer flight overall. It shows how these restrictions can impact on the profitability of European airlines or contribute to making flying more expensive for us!

[Author]

Posts