Lufthansa has fared extremely well in the Middle East, with a marked growth in passenger numbers - up by almost 18 per cent on its routes to and from the Gulf region during 2007, according to Peter Pollak, Lufthansa’s general manager passenger sales UAE, and director Gulf and Pakistan.
And for 2008 even more is on the cards. This year Lufthansa will introduce non stop flights from Dammam to Frankfurt, there will be additional flights from Dubai to Munich in summer, and new flights will be offered as from this month (April) from Frankfurt to Angola and Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Lufthansa will offer turn around flights on their 747 as from this month, meaning an increase of 20 per cent more seats from Dubai to Frankfurt.
This also has a positive effect on the Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt flights which now have more capacity, as they were linked with the Dubai flights. Starting this month, Abu Dhabi flights will be linked with Bahrain and Dammam.
A code share agreement for the summer schedule has been forged with Ethiopian Airlines. Lufthansa is also the official airline for the Olympics in Beijing.
This month a new country manager for Bahrain will be appointed, and Turkish Airlines is to join Star Alliance.
“Lufthansa is creating its own private jet fleet in order to accommodate surging demand: in comparison with the previous year, the number of private jet flights operated in 2007 rose by 26 per cent,” said Pollak.
“Lufthansa is investing in its own private jet fleet to satisfy the growing demand for flexible travel which is tailored to suit individual requirements. For now there are no plans to bring Lufthansa Private Jet to the Middle East region. However, customers can book the Private Jet service at any Lufthansa office, travel to Frankfurt and Munich and connect from there to board a Lufthansa Private Jet.
All in all, nine new private jets will be entering service in the coming months.”