Non esiste crisi per LH
Lufthansa plans to maintain network, focus on quality
Tuesday June 17, 2008
Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber remains confident that the current downturn in the industry will not force the German carrier to reduce capacity like European rivals British Airways and Air France KLM.
Mayrhuber said yesterday in Frankfurt that the industry is in major flux and airlines have to be careful with capacity. There are questions regarding the continued strength of growth markets like the Asia/Pacific or Middle East, and while he conceded that LH is manipulating up to 1,500 fares each day in order to remain competitive as demand weakens, he added, "We have no plans to cut any routes."
He predicted, "What we will see in the future is a bigger seasonality of traffic in the winter and summer periods," adding that LH "wants to be at the forefront of the industry. It doesn't matter how high the fuel price is."
With that in mind, LH will continue to focus on quality in its effort to attract passengers even as ticket prices rise. It is investing in a new first class cabin that will be introduced on its A380s and tested the new seats on recent Frankfurt-Detroit A340-300 flights. By year end it expects to decide whether to upgrade its long-haul business class product from lie-flat to full-flat seats, according to Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori.
The carrier has hedged approximately 80% of its fuel needs for this year and up to 45% for 2009. It already has added 16 new destinations this year and plans to hire 3,000 new employees throughout 2008.
Separately, LH released a series of "ambitious" environmental goals yesterday designed in part to meet the IATA target of a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions per flown km. by 2020. It also said it intends to increase the amount of biofuel admixed with conventional kerosene by up to 10% by 2020.
by Kurt Hofmann
(Atwonline)
Lufthansa plans to maintain network, focus on quality
Tuesday June 17, 2008
Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber remains confident that the current downturn in the industry will not force the German carrier to reduce capacity like European rivals British Airways and Air France KLM.
Mayrhuber said yesterday in Frankfurt that the industry is in major flux and airlines have to be careful with capacity. There are questions regarding the continued strength of growth markets like the Asia/Pacific or Middle East, and while he conceded that LH is manipulating up to 1,500 fares each day in order to remain competitive as demand weakens, he added, "We have no plans to cut any routes."
He predicted, "What we will see in the future is a bigger seasonality of traffic in the winter and summer periods," adding that LH "wants to be at the forefront of the industry. It doesn't matter how high the fuel price is."
With that in mind, LH will continue to focus on quality in its effort to attract passengers even as ticket prices rise. It is investing in a new first class cabin that will be introduced on its A380s and tested the new seats on recent Frankfurt-Detroit A340-300 flights. By year end it expects to decide whether to upgrade its long-haul business class product from lie-flat to full-flat seats, according to Executive VP-Marketing and Sales Thierry Antinori.
The carrier has hedged approximately 80% of its fuel needs for this year and up to 45% for 2009. It already has added 16 new destinations this year and plans to hire 3,000 new employees throughout 2008.
Separately, LH released a series of "ambitious" environmental goals yesterday designed in part to meet the IATA target of a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions per flown km. by 2020. It also said it intends to increase the amount of biofuel admixed with conventional kerosene by up to 10% by 2020.
by Kurt Hofmann
(Atwonline)