DESPITE a globally challenging market environment, Lufthansa German Airlines continues to expand its route network for the Gulf and Middle East, in line with its corporate strategy to link the oil producing countries to Germany and beyond.
Lufthansa is about to increase the capacity on its routes between the Gulf/ Middle East and Germany by 40 per cent, and between the UAE and Germany by 110 per cent compared to the previous year.
During his visit to the region, Thierry Antinori, executive vice president sales and marketing, Lufthansa German Airlines said, “The stable markets of the Middle East and the Gulf are viewed as an excellent opportunity to further develop our route network for the benefit of business travellers.”
With the beginning of the summer schedule Lufthansa will fly daily from Muscat, Jeddah, Riyadh and Beirut to Frankfurt, and increase its capacity for Iran as well as on the Dubai-Munich route, using bigger aircraft. Sana’a will be served four times a week and Dammam with three additional flights with the Lufthansa Business Jet in the months of June and July to connect to Frankfurt.
Currently, Lufthansa connects all the major gateways in the Gulf Region and Middle East with 96 flight connections per week to 14 destinations in 11 countries.
A major focus for expansion of Lufthansa has been placed on the African continent with the successful launch of Malabo and Luanda last year and further growth for West Africa on the agenda. More frequencies will be offered in future due to the planned incorporation of Brussels Airlines in the Star Alliance with customers of Lufthansa, SWISS and Brussels Airlines being able to fly to a total of 35 destinations in Africa.
In addition, cooperation agreements with the three partners Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines and South African Airways will provide customers with many more connections from Europe to Africa, as well as on the African continent.