Plans to restart LH destinations? [and other new routes speculations]
 

Could we see LH restart service to destinations such as:

Phoenix PHX?
Portland PDX?
Calgary YYC?
Glasgow GLA?
Bratislava BTS?
Hyderabad HYD?

Where would you like to see LH resume services to?

"Like"? A number of them, like Lima, La Paz, San Juan, Nairobi, Mauritius, Sydney, Jakarta, Manila, Lugano, Inverness. Does it make commercial/financial sense for LH to do so? Less sure.

I would rather appreciate the second daily MEX flight from MUC. Anybody know if and when it is coming?

Out of your list YYC and GLA will probably see a resumption in services. PHX & PDX are definite history, HYD was gifted to EK. BTS was a reactionary move like the service to STN.

And is missed very much...

I don't see LH re-start or opening up any destinations for the next one to two years.

Hmmm... with the massive addition of aircraft capcaities (10 A380, 3 A330, the new 748s have more seats than the retiring 744s) in the past months and economic & competitive ups and downs I won't say that they will not make route adjustments?

The interim reports deliver some facts
 

I am also curious when Lufthansa has inauguration flights to new countries and destinations. :)

Although I have no inside knowledge a closer look on the interim reports and the up-to-date IR communication materials can always be helpful:

http://investor-relations.lufthansa....B-2012-2-d.pdf

Here Lufthansa states the seat load factors as well as the average revenue per Mile:

Copy & Paste from page 11 delivers:

Seat load factor:
Europe 70,3 % (+0,8 % from previous period (Jan-Jun))
America 84,0 % (+2,0 % from previous period)
Asia/Pacific 80,3 % (+0,9 %)
Nahost/Afrika 71,8 % (+0,9%)

So in terms of utilization of the seats offered the areas America and Asia/Pacific will win the race. Although the average revenue per pax mile will differ between different Asian countries I *guess*that we will see some capacity increase to/from China, although the negotiations won´t be easy. :eek:

Due to high competitive pressure from LCC I don´t see much expansion/new destinations within Europe.

Think this interim reports are always fascinating. So just have a look and try your own guess.

The annual report also has the split by regions and the IR comments hint at where they make their money. Americas/TATL seems to be the bulk of the business, China brings profits, NME & India fills the back of the bus across the atlantic.

They already took a deep look at the China and India operations, SE Asia will be next. EK & co don't really have a geographic advantage in the N.Asia - Europe business, so LH and other European legacy carriers should be able to keep that business somewhat profitable.

Europe will see new or reactivated routes, even though LCC pressure is severe. The recent RTM was a prime example :)

So what happened then with Guangzhou???

The other advantage that LH should recall about EK & Co. is that people get tied into their frequent flyer program just like they do with LH (and as such will take them also to Japan for example- which by the way is the slowest growing economy in all of Asia and also one of the most protectionist).

4 flights a day to Bangkok and not one to Guangzhou??

Good question, it definitely failed the bean counters excel test. :p BKK is also about to go, especially when TG starts deploying the Lady Bee to FRA.

At the rate they're going- I probably won't even be SEN after 2016 :)

What will be the qualification for HON:
1) Must take our direct flight FRA-JFK
2) Must be on A380
3) F or J full fare only
......

The problem with the bean counters excel test often is they fail to consider that the fixed costs do not have anywhere else to be allocated to. A famous case of a company that kept cutting business lines as they were not profitable and customers as they were not profitable- only each time to learn that the remaining customers and the remaining business units were each time not profitable with the attached incremental expense allocation increases.

But then again, an airline would never think that way- would they now?

I'm sure LH will deploy their aircraft where they think it will be the most profitable. And I think they have been doing a decent job in that regard.

I assume LH is going to strenghten their Middle and South American basis in the coming 2-3 years. From what I heard, they make good money on their current Latam routes (GRU, EZE, BOG), so why not add 1 or 2 if the aircraft utilisation permits it.

With BTS being 30-45 minutes from VIE, that is extremely unlikely, though I would love to see it myself!