POLAND: LOT Polish Airlines Introduces Flights To Gothenburg,Israel,Berlin Tegel,Oslo,Hannover, Domodedovo And Podgorica

LOT Polish Airlines has introduced a hat-trick of new routes, including one to Russia, the host country of the upcoming World Cup Finals.

The Polish flag carrier launched services from Warsaw Chopin (WAW) to Podgorica (TGD) on 2 June, to Moscow Domodedovo (DME) on 3 June and to Hannover (HAJ) on 4 June.

The 1,096-kilometre Podgorica connection and the 1,165-kilometre Domodedovo link will both be operated six times per week by the airline’s E-Jet aircraft.

The 766-kilometre Hannover route will be flown 12 times per week with E170s. None of the routes face incumbent competition.

LOT Polish Airlines introduced Gothenburg (GOT) to its network this week, beginning a six times weekly service to Warsaw Chopin (WAW).

Launched 28 August, the 824-kilometre route is already flown by Wizz Air three times weekly on A320s.

It is very pleasing for Swedavia to be able to offer more travelers a quick and easy line to the trendy and exciting city of Warsaw.

It is also an important line for business travelers in both Poland and Western Sweden, said Charlotte Ljunggren, Director, Gothenburg Airport.

LOT will operate the route using 70-seat CRJ 900s which it flies on behalf of Nordica, which on the same day began services to Gothenburg from Tallinn.

Gothenburg becomes LOT’s second route to Sweden from Chopin, with it also serving Stockholm Arlanda with three daily flights.

LOT Polish Airlines commenced a weekly service between Rzeszow (RZE) and Tel Aviv (TLV) on 11 March, with the 737-800-operated service being flown on a Warsaw Chopin-based aircraft, routing Chopin–Tel Aviv–Rzeszow–Tel Aviv–Chopin.

The 2,274-kilometre airport pair launched by the Star Alliance member this week will not face direct competition, and will operate inbound from Tel Aviv on Saturday evenings, with the outbound leg from Rzeszow being flown on Sunday mornings.

With this launch, LOT now serves Tel Aviv from six airports in Poland on 21 weekly flights.

LOT Polish Airlines now flies 12 times weekly to Berlin Tegel (TXL) from its Warsaw Chopin (WAW) hub, having ceased operations to the German capital in July 2013.

The route, which started on 4 December, is operated by the Star Alliance carrier’s Q400s and E170s, and a third daily flight will be added from June 2018.

Tegel is the sixth airport in Germany that LOT Polish Airlines operates to, with Nuremburg soon to become the seventh.

LOT Polish Airlines is back in Berlin. We are pleased that the airline is resuming its connection to Warsaw, says Engelbert LUtke Daldrup, CEO of Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

We share a long history: LOT was one of the first airlines at Schonefeld Airport. It is good to know that they are once again securing this important route into the economic centre of our neighbours.

There is no competition on the airport pair.

LOT Polish Airlines introduced services between Warsaw Chopin (WAW) and Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) on 25 March.

The Star Alliance member will offer 13 weekly flights on the 1,078-kilometre European capital connection using its fleet of E195s.

Competition on the route comes from Norwegian and SAS, with the rivals offering 10 weekly rotations combined between the two airports when referencing OAG schedules.

LOT Polish Airlines now flies 12 times weekly to Berlin Tegel (TXL) from its Warsaw Chopin (WAW) hub, having ceased operations to the German capital in July 2013.

The route, which started on 4 December, is operated by the Star Alliance carrier’s Q400s and E170s, and a third daily flight will be added from June 2018.

Tegel is the sixth airport in Germany that LOT Polish Airlines operates to, with Nuremburg soon to become the seventh.


Tourism Observer

GERMANY: Lufthansa Cancels Flights,Strike Hits Across Germany

Lufthansa has cancelled 895 flights scheduled for Wednesday from six German airports as government workers call short-term strikes in the run-up to wage discussions later this week.

The airline said Tuesday that its hubs in Munich and Frankfurt would see the most disruption. Some 87,000 passengers would be affected overall.

Public-sector workers doing ground handling and security checks were expected to walk off the job ahead of wage talks Thursday with the government. The ver.di union is looking for a 6 percent pay rise for its 2 million members,

Lufthansa, which is not part of the negotiations, deployed practices it has used during strikes by its own employees to prevent long lines and chaos at airports. It cancelled flights ahead of the start of the strike action and urged passengers to check their flight status on LH.com.

Passengers with mobility limitations were cautioned that staff to assist them getting through the airport would be in short supply and that they should consider rebooking at no cost.

Of the cancelled flights, 545 were to or from Munich, where the strike was to last all day. All intercontinental flights to or from there were cancelled for Wednesday, the company said in its news release.

Most international flights would operate from Frankfurt, where the strike period was to be from 4.30am to 3 pm local time.Flights within Germany or Europe from Frankfurt were largely cancelled.

Other airports affected are Duesseldorf, Cologne-Bonn, Dortmund and Hannover.

Strikes are taking place Tuesday at places like kindergartens and swimming pools. Garbage pickup and street cleaning in Munich were also affected.

SWITZERLAND: Rezidor Buys Prizeotel

The Rezidor Hotel Group has announced its entry into the economy segment through the acquisition of a 49% stake of prizeotel for a price of €14.7m and has secured further rights including the acquisition of the remaining 51% in 4 years from now. Prizeotel is a dynamic start-up company – a young hotel chain with currently 3 operating properties in Germany and 1 further hotel under development. The brand was founded by Marco Nussbaum and co-created with New York-based industrial designer Karim Rashid.

“We are delighted to partner with prizeotel, an entrepreneurial and creative economy brand. It ideally complements our compelling brand portfolio currently ranging from mid-scale to luxury, and facilitates our responsiveness to the evolving needs of our guests. With this transaction, we now offer additional choices and opportunities to both our customers and owners”, said Wolfgang M. Neumann, President & CEO of Rezidor at the International Hotel Investment Forum IHIF in Berlin. “The acquisition allows us a fast-paced entry to the economy segment – an increasingly attractive sector due to its rapid development opportunities and resilience to the economic cycles. Prizeotel is a commercial success story and has differentiated itself through innovative urban design, tech-savvy focus, personal touch and unique team culture – a total fit to Rezidor”, added Neumann.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. I am glad to partner with Rezidor to transform prizeotel from a local player to an international economy brand. Having started our journey back in 2009, we will now write the next chapter of our unconventional success story. I am happy, proud, chilled and especially thankful for the work and dedication each team member of prizeotel as well as all our partners have put into creating this unique brand”, said Marco Nussbaum, CEO of prizeotel. “The current owners of prizeotel’s real estate will keep the properties and plan to invest in further projects”, ended Nussbaum.

Following the purchase, which will be closed during the next few weeks, Rezidor and prizeotel plan an integrated approach towards the brand’s Business Development as well as Sales, Marketing & Distribution. Prizeotel will continue to be led by Marco Nussbaum, and his team who retain full responsibility for the business. Rezidor will steer key strategic aspects through its shareholding governance represented by Wolfgang M. Neumann. An integrated development and commercial support will be in place to accelerate the pursuit of growth opportunities and optimise business support for prizeotel.

“Combining and cross-fertilizing prizeotel’s market and brand knowledge with Rezidor’s international expertise will unlock value for both organisations. We will initially grow the German network and target key cities in Austria, Switzerland and BeNeLux primarily through leases, but also management agreements. Prizeotel will offer a unique investment proposition with its compelling design, value-engineered development costs, high operating efficiencies and an optional turn-key construction solution”, commented Elie Younes, Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer of Rezidor.

Prizeotel currently operates 3 hotels with a total of 555 rooms in Hamburg, Hannover and Bremen. Exclusively designed by Karim Rashid, these signature hotels feature an appealing, futuristic look and put a focus on technology as well as hassle-free service for business and leisure guests seeking individual experiences at great value for money. An extension of the property in Hamburg and a second hotel in Hamburg-Reeperbahn were also announced today.

GERMANY: Lufthansa Is The Sixth Largest Airline In The World

When measured in ASKs, Lufthansa is the sixth largest airline in the world, beaten only by Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Emirates, American Airlines, and Southwest Airlines when considering this week’s operations (using OAG Schedules Analyser data). Looking back to S06 using this metric, the German national carrier was still in sixth spot, but was the #2 in Europe, behind American, United, Delta, Continental Airlines and British Airways. The Star Alliance carrier’s main base has been Frankfurt Airport for decades, as it is today. It currently commands 67% frequency share at Germany’s largest and Europe’s third largest hub, a figure that has gradually improved (or worsened depending on your views on control of slots at hubs) over the last 10 years, having been 61% in September 2006.

Matching this recent increase in dominance at Frankfurt are the airline’s number of weekly frequencies and destinations. Our data elves thought that the step-change in weekly frequencies (up to around 3,000) and points served (up to over 160) which was observed in 2011 was due to the airport opening its fourth runway. However, this piece of infrastructure did not ‘officially’ open until October 2011 (we know that because we were there), which might mean that the runway’s capacity was being utilised before (our data is looking at week commencing 22 September) the ‘official’ opening on 21 October. Answers on a postcard please to the Editor…
Domestic market dominates

This summer, Lufthansa operates to 67 country markets from its main hub, one more than in the same week last year ‒ gaining Iceland, with Reykjavik/Keflavik thrice-weekly services having launched on 2 May ‒ and significantly more than its southern German hub in Munich, which, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data, by comparison offers just 47 country markets in S15. Capacity to Lufthansa’s second biggest country market (as measured by seats) ‒ the US ‒ has been enhanced this week, with the start of a Lufthansa CityLine/Jump-operated five times weekly route to Tampa on 25 September.

While at many European airports, and indeed at the continent’s main hubs, domestic capacity would appear to be being replaced (and forced onto alternative land-based modes) with more lucrative international and intercontinental flying, this does not appear to be the case for Lufthansa at Frankfurt. In the last 12 months, it has added another 1.7% more seat capacity into its domestic routes, seeing it pass the 100,000 weekly seats mark. Capacity within Germany therefore remains at a healthy 18.5% of all seats offered by Lufthansa at its main hub, no doubt underlining the importance of home-market feed for the airline.

Demark, which has witnessed a 16% increase in seats since last September (partly thanks to the launch of services to Aalborg at the start of the summer season), has replaced Russia within the airline’s top 12 country markets, with the latter seeing a 32% culling of weekly seats as the frosty political and economic relations continue. Poland also produced double digit growth (10%) in the last year, due in part to a new four times weekly service to Bydgoszcz, launched on 29 March. The market experiencing the most significant fall in capacity is France (down 4.5%), which when combined with Spain’s 7.3% increase, has seen the latter leapfrog the former into fifth spot behind the UK.
Paris CDG feels the pinch

Lufthansa’s capacity to Europe’s second largest airport and competing hub at Paris CDG has been reduced from the levels planned a year ago, with nearly 11% fewer seats available. Rome Fiumicino encountered the next largest drop in offered seats, with a 5.2% annual decline. At the other end of the scale, three airports mustered double-digit increases over the same period, led by Brussels (+13%), and closely followed by London Heathrow (+11.3%) and Hamburg (+10.9%). The top 12 routes in September 2015 represented 26% of all of Lufthansa’s Frankfurt capacity, up marginally from the 25.7% recorded in 2014.

Hannover drops out of the top 12, only to be replaced by another domestic connection to Düsseldorf, which was 15th in the 2014 listing. The biggest route for Lufthansa outside of Europe is now Shanghai Pudong, in 15th position overall. Despite annual seat growth of less than 1% since last September, the Chinese route has climbed from 17th spot it held in 2014, jumping ahead of last year’s biggest non-European route – New York JFK – which due to its 4% seat reduction has fallen from 16th to 17th. However, the 12% increase in weekly seats offered by Lufthansa to Los Angeles from its Frankfurt hub has seen it draw level with JFK, as both airports have a seven-day capacity of 6,111 seats.

In terms of ASKs Lufthansa’s top 10 routes from Frankfurt are dominated by US destinations, which feature six times. Los Angeles and Shanghai Pudong lead the way (both served double-daily) with almost 50% more ASKs than third-placed New York JFK. Rounding out the top 10 are Singapore, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Seoul and Boston.
Luxembourg and Nairobi next

Looking ahead to what is left of 2015 and onto 2016, Lufthansa is planning to launch two further routes from its Frankfurt hub this October. After a 16-year hiatus in services, a four times weekly route to Nairobi ‒ operated again by its CityLine/Jump subsidiary ‒ is planned from 25 October, and on the same day the carrier will commence four daily flights to Luxembourg. In addition, CityLine/Jump-operated twice-weekly, A340-300 services to Cancún (8 December), Malé (9 December) and Mauritius (10 December) will be launched later in the year, with five times weekly services to Panama City pencilled-in for 2 March 2016.

BELGIUM: Brussels Airlines Flys To Bremen

On 14 September, Bremen Airport celebrated the arrival of Brussels Airlines’ new five times weekly service from the Belgian capital. Flights on the 377-kilometre will operate daily Monday through Friday.

Brussels Airlines launched services between Brussels (BRU) and Bremen (BRE) on 14 September. The 377-kilometre sector will operate five times weekly (Monday through Friday), with the airport pair facing no incumbent carriers. Services will be flown using ERJ 145s according to OAG Schedules Analyser data, operated for Brussels Airlines by bmi regional. Brussels Airlines already serves Berlin Tegel, Hamburg and Hannover in Germany with non-stop flights. In total the Star Alliance carrier now serves 76 destinations non-stop from its Belgian hub.