Germany’s Lufthansa is planning for two separate long-haul arms to revive and take over past and current long-haul routes from Germany to the Asia-Pacific.
In exclusive interviews with Business Traveller Asia-Pacific during the unveiling of the carrier’s new premium economy product (click here), Lufthansa said it is working to launch “Jump”, a leaner long-haul carrier than mainline Lufthansa, but still positioned far away from the LCC segment.
“Jump” is being positioned to potentially serve Hyderabad, Ho Chi Minh City and Qingdao – all routes the carrier had to terminate in recent years – and also to take over leisure-heavy routes (such as Bangkok) that do not warrant the use of aircraft with large premium cabins.
“Lufthansa had to terminate these routes in recent years [except for Bangkok] because the yields they produced did not meet our higher cost base – itself a product of high labour costs associated with cabin, ground and maintenance crew unions, and due to strong competition from the Gulf carriers,” said Andreas Bartels, head of communications for Lufthansa.
The initial eight designated “Jump”’ A340-300 aircraft will feature 18 business, 19 premium economy and 261 economy seats. Business class will feature its latest product, currently offered on the B747-8 fleet.
“‘Jump’ is not to be confused with the new long-haul low-cost carrier (LCC) Lufthansa is planning for service introduction in mid-2015,” said Bartels.
Frankfurt-based ‘Jump’ is “principally mainline Lufthansa, whereas the LCC will be part of its ‘Wings’ division and as such be based in Cologne, Dusseldorf or Munich and serve entirely different, more tourist-centric markets, for less money than both mainline Lufthansa or ‘Jump’ could offer,” he said.
Lufthansa has recently re-negotiated labour agreements with its A340 cabin crew to facilitate the service introduction of “Jump”, at 25 per cent less labour cost.
For more information, visit lufthansa.com
Dominic Sebastian Lalk