Lufthansa : LH : DLH

Pilots at German flag-carrier [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] are being balloted for industrial action after long-running talks on pay and conditions failed to reach a settlement.
The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit has opened a ballot today which will close on 17 February.
It has invited participation from Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Germanwings air crews - some 4,500 pilots in total.
The union says that it needs to secure 70% of the vote in favour of action to engage in industrial action. It believes it will obtain "broad agreement" with its position in the dispute.
Vereinigung Cockpit states that it is concerned that Lufthansa will replace jobs in Germany through resources drawn from its various foreign subsidiary carriers.
It says its members would have been prepared to made concessions to Lufthansa's cost-saving programme 'Climb 2011' if the carrier had been willing to give assurances over job security.
A spokesman for Lufthansa says simply that the carrier regrets the ballot decision.
"It's not the right time, with the industry under so much pressure," he says, adding that the carrier remains open to further discussions with the union.
Vereinigung Cockpit says that its negotiating commission has been "constructively" seeking to come to a "reasonable agreement" with Lufthansa. Talks, which have taken place since May, broke down last month

Germany's [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Flight Training has installed an [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] simulator at its Frankfurt centre, giving carriers the chance to train third-party pilots on the type.

The simulator complements a cabin emergency evacuation trainer for the aircraft.
Lufthansa Flight Training took delivery of the Thales A380 simulator in September last year. The German flag-carrier has 15 A380s on order.

Its 11.5m (38ft)-tall cabin trainer, developed by Germany's TFC Kaufer, includes a projection system which replaces the escape slides with a three-dimensional projected animation.
"When crew glance through the aircraft door window they see a realistic image of what is happening outside the aircraft," says Lufthansa Flight Training.

TFC installed its first A380 cabin trainer at Toulouse, for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in 2005 and a second for Emirates in mid-2007.
Lufthansa had been expecting to receive the first of its double-decks jet in March but introduction has been pushed back by a few weeks.

BERLIN, Feb 17, 2010 (AFP)German airline Lufthansa said Wednesday it is bracing for what looks set to be the biggest pilots' strike since 2001 when a series of one-day stoppages caused chaos for thousands of passengers.

2010 AFP

Lufthansa pilots represented by Vereinigung Cockpit voted overwhelmingly yesterday to strike at midnight next Monday through 11:59 p.m. Feb. 25, a four-day stoppage that the airline called "totally inappropriate."

Pilots have been demanding a 6.4% pay raise since last summer, and VC opened the strike ballot one month ago amid reports that it also was concerned that LH could shift flying to lower-cost, recently acquired subsidiaries [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. It is seeking both the raise and job guarantees for its 4,500 LH members and warned that next week's strike would match a stoppage in 2001 that forced hundreds of flight cancellations over a three-day period and cost the airline some €200 million. More than 90% of voting VC members favored the strike, which would include crew from Germanwings and Lufthansa Cargo.

"So far we cannot say how many flights we would have to cancel. This depends also how many pilots join the strike action, if our hubs Frankfurt and Munich will be included, etc.," an LH spokesperson told ATWOnline. "VC did not give us any more information."
Sources close to the carrier told this website that LH will try to place larger aircraft on certain routes and management pilots will work on the flight deck as necessary. It also is prepared to wet-lease aircraft to help minimize disruptions, a strategy it employed in 2001.
In a statement, LH said the strike decision was "made despite the willingness shown by Lufthansa to reach a negotiated settlement. . . However, in addition to demands for more job security, the union also insisted on greater say in fundamental entrepreneurial issues, which would be linked with an intervention in the airline's business management. That demand cannot be accepted."

LH claimed it has offered "numerous proposals on job security" and it urged VC to return to talks "in order to work out a constructive solution." It is offering passengers booked on flights during the strike period the option to rebook on the same route with no change fee for travel before March 31 or to cancel the itinerary free of charge.

by Kurt Hofmann

Friday February 19, 2010
Lufthansa said the four-day pilots strike scheduled for next week will cost it approximately €100 million ($136.9 million) and that the company's attorneys are examining whether the Vereinigung Cockpit action is legal [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]. Its plan to weather the strike includes help from subsidiaries Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines. For example, OS will operate larger aircraft on flights from Vienna to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich. "We are also studying using more capacity to Berlin or Cologne if LH needs us," an Austrian spokesperson told ATWOnline.
...

Lufthansa pilots have suspended a strike and returned to negotiations with the airline.

German pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit went on strike citing concerns over jobs. Its members reportedly make up the vast majority of Lufthansa's 4,500 cockpit crew.
Lufthansa expects to operate more than 1,000 flights today, out of the 1,800 it usually operates daily, says the spokesman.
"But from tomorrow, more flights will be reinstated," he adds. All scheduled flights will resume on 26 February.
"We expect no major problems, and have re-booked most of the affected passengers on other flights," says the spokesman.

Lufthansa reports switch into annual net loss

FRANKFURT, March 2, 2010 (AFP)German airline Lufthansa, Europe's reported on Tuesday a 2009 net loss of 112 million euros (151 million dollars) after net earnings of 542 million euros in 2008.

Lufthansa is to begin operating Airbus A380 services in June, as part of a summer schedule which features an overall increase in capacity.

Chief executive Wolfgang Mayrhuber, speaking as the airline detailed its 2009 financial performance today, said the airline would be "entering a new dimension in flying" with the A380 "at the end of May".

The carrier will identify its first destinations for the aircraft at the beginning of April.

Lufthansa is increasing capacity on the summer timetable by 3.6% as a result of replacing smaller aircraft types with larger ones, although it will operate virtually the same number of weekly flights.

The number of long-haul flights will increase by 5% while the number of European flights will be slightly reduced.

It will operate to six new destinations - five from Munich, including a new long-haul route to Tashkent, plus Milan-Palermo - but has yet to include services to Iraq, which are still under consideration.

Lufthansa will serve a total of 204 destinations across its network this summer.

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Austrian Airlines réduit ses pertes en 2009

VIENNE, 11 mars 2010 (AFP)La compagnie Austrian Airlines (AUA), désormais détenue par Lufthansa, a réduit ses pertes en 2009 grâce à des mesures d'économie et veut renouer avec les bénéfices en 2011, selon un communiqué publié mardi.

2010 AFP

Première étape accomplie, donc !

Lufthansa pilots renewed their threat to strike for four days starting April 13 unless they can agree with the German flag carrier on terms for arbitration. The Vereinigung Cockpit union denied several German media reports that it had dropped its strike call as demanded by the airline. A one-day pilots strike in February cost LH around €48 million ($64.7 million) as it was forced to cancel 2,000 flights.

by Cathy Buyck

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] plans to operate its first [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flights to Tokyo Narita and Beijing.

The Star Alliance carrier, which will take delivery of its first A380 on 19 May, will operate the superjumbo jet between Frankfurt and Tokyo thrice-weekly from 11 June.

From 26 August, thrice-weekly A380 flights between Beijing and Frankfurt will commence, says Lufthansa.

Its third A380 destination will be Johannesburg.
The A380 will replace part of the daily [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flights to Narita and Beijing. Lufthansa plans to operate A380s
daily to both cities when its third and fourth A380s arrive later this year.

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[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] plans to operate its first [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flights to Tokyo Narita and Beijing.
The Star Alliance carrier, which will take delivery of its first A380 on 19 May, will operate the superjumbo jet between Frankfurt and Tokyo thrice-weekly from 11 June.

From 26 August, thrice-weekly A380 flights between Beijing and Frankfurt will commence, says Lufthansa. Its third A380 destination will be Johannesburg.
The A380 will replace part of the daily [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flights to Narita and Beijing. Lufthansa plans to operate A380s daily to both cities when its third and fourth A380s arrive later this year.

"We have decided that two out of three first Lufthansa A380 destinations will be in the Asia-Pacific region. Our commitment to our customers, partners and many thousands employees in this region and our confidence in the ongoing positive development of the markets here could not be stronger," says Lufthansa's VP of Asia-Pacific Uwe Mueller.
Lufthansa had previously indicated that New York could be its first A380 destination.

The airline will operate its first A380 long-haul flight on 6 June, when it transports the German national football team to the World Cup in South Africa, before revenue services begin on 11 June.
Lufthansa's A380 will have 526 seats configured in three classes: eight seats in first class, 98 seats in business class, and 420 seats in economy class.
The carrier expects to take delivery of four A380s this year.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], operator of the biggest aircraft fleet in Europe, said it’s in favor of Airbus SAS and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] putting new engines on their existing narrow- body models to help reduce operating costs by about 15 percent.

Lufthansa’s status as launch customer for [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]’s CSeries plane, a new model in the 100- to 150-seat segment of the single-aisle market,

.....has been instrumental in driving the top two manufacturers to consider improvements, fleet manager [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] said in an interview yesterday.

“Re-engining is a welcome addition to the fleet,” Buchholz said in Frankfurt, where Lufthansa has its main hub. “The current products are very good, but we’d really like to see an improvement in noise emissions and fuel consumption.”

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and Boeing will decide this year whether to spend at least $1 billion installing new engines to boost efficiency until new short-haul models are introduced around 2024.

While Lufthansa has a fleet of 727 aircraft and influence over decisions on jetliner development, carriers including American Airlines Inc. say the case for re-engining isn’t clear.

Lufthansa operates 89 Boeing 737s and 82 Airbus A320-series jets, plus 35 on order.

The German company also has a 30-plane order and 30 options for the Bombardier CSeries, which will use a more efficient geared-fan engine that’s being developed by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] It signed a firm contract in 2009, helping the plane to build credibility.

“Our expectation was it would create awareness in the market that we can do better than currently,” Buchholz said. “I think the re-engining discussion and some other discussions show that part has worked. That’s not why we bought the aircraft, but it was a nice side effect.”

New models and upgrades of older planes may hurt the value of existing fleets and make operations more complex. A lack of information on engine performance also hurts the case for re- engining, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], managing director for corporate finance at American Airlines, said in New York on April 26.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], a spokesman at Boeing’s commercial plane division, and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], an Airbus spokesman, said their companies intend to make a decision on their single-aisle plans by the end of this year.

A380 Routes

Lufthansa has no immediate plans to purchase more Airbus A380 wide-body planes, with the 15 ordered so far sufficient to cover current flight plans, Buchholz said. The airline receives its first superjumbo on May 19 and will use it on the Frankfurt- Tokyo route from June 11. Subsequent aircraft will be deployed to Beijing in late August and Johannesburg from October.
“We can use the planes on routes which are high density and slot-limited so that we get much more efficiency and lower our costs,” the executive said.

Lufthansa also has an order for 20 Boeing 747-8 planes, and Buchholz said the models are complementary, with the Boeing jumbo intended to carry 400 passengers and the Airbus about 500.

The Cologne-based carrier, Europe’s second-biggest after [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], so far hasn’t ordered the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, set for service entry late this year, or the Airbus A350, intended for commercial operations in 2013.
“We’ve run a thorough analysis on various models of both types to see which could fit best and we’re pretty well advanced in those studies,” Buchholz said. “But at the moment we’re still in a comfortable situation in that we have a young fleet, so there’s no urgent requirement to actually order those.”
While there are signs of a recovery in traffic, the rebound is not dramatic and Lufthansa will stick with a conservative approach to fleet planning based on sustainable growth, he said.

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] today reveals its new A380 first class cabin, which features oak veneer surfaces, sheet brass, white and grey wall elements, brownish-grey carpeting and pale grey curtains. The carrier’s A380s are being fitted with eight first class flat-bed seats. The concept has been created by a team from Priestman Goode & London. Lufthansa’s new first class cabin provides separate changing and lavatory areas, as well as enhanced personal space and storage options (exclusive to the A380).

Airbus CEO Tom Enders told a group of journalists including ATWOnline in Hamburg this week that the company expects to deliver 20 A380s while securing orders for "more than 20" this year, including "additional orders from existing customers."

He added, "I don't want to make airlines feel like we're putting them under pressure, but more and more it appears that an airline can only compete against an A380 with an A380."

He conceded that the manufacturer itself is under pressure to stabilize the program. Parent EADS said earlier this month that A380 program production costs and delays "weigh significantly on the underlying [financial] performance" of it and Airbus ([Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]).
"Sure we underestimated the high costs of this aircraft," Enders admitted, adding that it will take some time until the program becomes a net financial positive. He insisted that the learning curve to produce the aircraft is shrinking, thus lowering production costs. "We had two crises on the A380, one of them was homemade and of course [the program was hurt by the global] financial crisis," he said.

Asked if a stretched version (the so-called -900) will be launched anytime soon, he responded, "It is not on my screen for the time being. Lufthansa is not the only carrier which has shown interest [in the -900], but we have to take one step at a time."

The same goes for the A380 freighter, a big part of the program when it was launched originally that was put on hold after FedEx and UPS cancelled orders for it. "Airbus overstretched itself in the beginning [of the A380 project]," Enders explained. "We have to be realistic. First we have to bring the [current version of the] A380 into stable production." He said the company plans to produce two per month in 2011.