61 New Connections in Lufthansa’s Summer Timetable

This summer, Lufthansa is further increasing its flight offering, particularly from Berlin to seasonal holiday destinations in Europe.

In the long-haul sector, two new destinations will be added to Lufthansa’s network in China, the most densely populated country in Asia.

In the new summer timetable, Lufthansa will operate flights to 216 destinations in 83 countries (compared to 211 destinations in 84 countries in 2011).

“Never before have we been able to offer our customers so many connections to such a large number of destinations,” said Jens Bischof, a member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board. “From June onwards, we will massively increase our offer of non-stop connections to more than one thousand take-offs and landings per week.”

The summer timetable comes into effect on Sunday 25 March and ends on Saturday 27 October 2012.

Fourfold Increase in Flights from Berlin’s New International Airport

The opening of Germany’s largest airport – Berlin Brandenburg (BER) – on 3 June 2012 will mark a new chapter for Lufthansa. From that date, the airline will offer 28 new non-stop connections, expanding its route network to and from the German capital from eleven to 39 routes (26 to European destinations and two new routes from Berlin to the Middle East).

If one includes the services provided by the Lufthansa German Airline Group and the Star Alliance partners, passengers departing from Berlin will then have a choice of connections to almost 50 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and North America. That represents a fourfold increase in services operated from Berlin compared to the previous timetable.

Seating capacity at Berlin will increase by more than 40%.

Non-stop frequencies from Berlin to the most important and most popular European cities will be increased in future, in many cases with outward flights in the morning and return flights in the evening. The new LH destinations that were previously not served non-stop from Berlin include Valencia, Bologna, Birmingham and Beirut. At the same time, Lufthansa will also introduce a new pricing system that has been specially developed for the Berlin market. For the first time, fares for all Lufthansa flights between Berlin and European destinations will start as low as 49 euros, one way, all inclusive. All the aircraft deployed on these routes will be configured in a two-class layout, i.e. with Business Class and Economy Class.

New Destinations in China

With the introduction of the summer timetable, services will be resumed to Shenyang in northeastern China. From there, the flight will continue on to Qingdao (formerly known as Tsingtao) on China’s eastern seaboard, linking the city for the first time to Lufthansa’s route network.

Shenyang, a city with a population of seven million, lies about 700 kilometres from Beijing, is one of China’s largest industrial centres. The economic structure of the region is dominated by automobile and aircraft manufacturing, as well as by the chemical industry and the IT sector. Qingdao has a population of almost nine million. Thanks to its deep-water harbour, the city is of key importance to the oil-refining industry and goods traffic in the entire Shandong Peninsula on china’s eastern coastline. The port is the third largest in China and the ninth largest worldwide. Qingdao is also one of China’s most popular beach resorts.

Holiday Flight Programme Expanded

This summer, Lufthansa is focusing heavily on seasonal connections to popular holiday resorts. The airline is adding four new, attractive holiday destinations to its network: Knock in Ireland, Montpellier in France, Odessa in Ukraine and Pula in Croatia. For leisure travellers, Lufthansa is also laying on a wide choice of new seasonal connections to European resorts, including 17 new routes from Düsseldorf, six from Hamburg, 18 from Munich and 16 from Frankfurt.

“For the ‘best weeks’ of the year, Lufthansa provides reliability, an all-round service and thus a relaxing journey for holidaymakers travelling to beach or mountain resorts,” said Jens Bischof. “On the Mediterranean alone, 29 Lufthansa destinations line the coast like a string of pearls. Summer visitors can quickly reach a further ten attractive destinations on the North Sea and the Atlantic with our non-stop flights. The majority of Europe’s most beautiful cities are served several times daily, making them ideal for a short break.”

In recent months, Lufthansa has withdrawn its services to Guangzhou in China, Kolkata and Hyderabad in India, Klagenfurt in Austria, Calgary in Canada and Bursa in Turkey. Calgary is now served by Air Canada.

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