whiskey_sk

don't forget Eurowings...

danielonn

As long as they keep the current Lufthansa and offer the same services meals/alcoholic beverages in Y and not go the way of Air Canada Rogue then let those large families be offloaded mainline LH and fly on the LCC. Fine by me if I can get a cabin without crying or misbehaving children/teens and even some adults.

mapu

Business Traveler Asia has an article on LH's "Jump":

http://www.businesstraveller.asia/as...-haul-for-less

KLouis

Zo, it vill be called Vorldvings!

Why can't Germans nowadays stop giving English or English-sounding names to absolutely everything?

PS Mind you, Greeks are not much better either: Eh-tzee-an Airlines for most of us...

N1003U

...“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...

...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...


OK, so we take the old, crappy, written-down, fuel guzzling equipment, re-paint and re-configure it for higher density (which will sell at even more reduced prices that may or may not be offset by the increased density), staff it with folks who are 25% cheaper (in other words ~25% off from about ~25% of the cost base) in order to achieve single-digit-percent savings, and somehow this is going to work?

Is slashing service and cutting costs by a few percent really easier, better for business, and more practical than simply figuring out what services customers will pay a bit extra for (say 10% or pick your favorite number) for a real or perceived increase in product value--note this requires getting of one's backside and doing some work), investing a little bit into the mainline product, and providing said value in a polite and pleasant fashion? Really? For a company with LH's cost base and hostile political environment?

Hint: how will competitors with a lower cost base respond to this new robust and sophisticated product offering?

jimyvr

Lufthansa still flies to Qingdao...

oliver2002

Again, don't mix up worldwings (LCC ala Sunexpress and 4U) with Jump!

Jump is basically an extension of the 343 and 744 strategy formulated under Antiniory: fly the written off 744 and 343 to destinations in a high density config with LH hard and soft product where margins are thin. The 748, 380, 346 and 333 remain the backbone. Wehn the last batch of 5 748 arrive next summer LH will have added 34 new widebodies to the fleet in 5 years.

@KLouis: the world has moved on from using latin or greek terms. κόσμοφτερά or alismundi don't sound well either... I would love दुनियापंख though...

malmostoso

I think κόσμοφτερά would make for some pretty good branding. I'd fly that.

moeve

There is a big fault in the dumping of the sardines idea. They may fly cheap BUT a fully booked eco plays a good roll in financing to Overall cost of a flight with out them the front will have to pay a higher price too. Half empty Aircraft are Never profitable!

KLouis

Exleftseat

Flightglobal had an interesting article about the "Jump" platform :

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...0120000000taAh

Interesting as well this comment I saw in an Aero Telegraph article from last month which was at the end of the news about a LH/Sun Express hook-up and referred to the "Jump" platform :
( http://www.aerotelegraph.com/lufthan...is-sun-express )

"Der Service soll «das hochwertige Reiseerlebnis eines Lufthansa-Fluges mit hohem Serviceanspruch und Komfortniveau bieten»."

The spin doctors at their finest.

FollowTheSun

Folks on FT are complaning about the huuuuge business class section on the A380 and to a lesser extent the B747-8 since they have been introduced.
Now Lufti reduces the number of business class seats (and say in all sources that it will remain the same product, same new seat hardware) on a subfleet of A340-300 to only 18, which should allow for a more private atmosphere and service, guess what: Folks are complaing.

Conclusio: Whatever they do, Lufti simply cannot make it right @:-)

Scoojitsu

First 3 jump planes will be flown by PrivateAir pilots.

MichielR

How about Red Wings? Maybe LH should add this Russian airline to its group...

YuropFlyer

FollowTheSun: If LH could fill their HUUUUUGE Business class sections with their crappy old C seats with actually paying customers, then it would work out for them. But apparently even Franz and now Spohr realised that having a terrible seat isn't selling at premium prices.

They simply are reducing C capacity because demand has shrunken for LH C quite significantly - they lived off the good name of LH for quite a while, now that it's severely broken, they try different stuff, but it won't help.

They don't have an edge anywhere anymore, the strikes have broken one of their last advantages that people seen in LH group (smooth, good connections, punctual, no disruptions) - now they're just an overpriced, average European carrier, with many services outsources, where you pay for seat reservation, but one which still THINKS people will chose it over the competition because it's somehow "German".. someone should really tell LH management that those times are over, and that LH is to blame for itself.

BA is showing how you do it right. AF/KLM is showing how to do it wrong. Apparently LH thinks the AF-way is the right one to go..