Lufthansa is continuing to expand its services to popular leisure travel destinations with 16 new connections, 5 new destinations and Business Class retrofit speeded up.

The new summer timetable includes five new destinations: Mahón, Jerez de la Frontera, Cardiff, Glasgow and Varna. In the long-haul segment, Lufthansa is launching a new service from Munich to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada in addition to the existing connection from Frankfurt. From July, passengers in Europe will also be able to book and experience the new product and fare concept for Germanwings, which will gradually take over Lufthansa’s point-to-point routes, except Frankfurt and Munich.

Starting on April 6th, Lufthansa, which is currently operating one daily flight between Frankfurt-Malta, will add a second daily flight on weekends, from Lufthansa’s main hub, while its connections will double from August 1st, 2013, to twice daily departures. As of August, Lufthansa will also increase from 3 to 5 its weekly flights between Munich-Malta.

In the summer timetable, customers will have a choice of flights to 218 destinations in 82 countries (previous year: 216 destinations in 83 countries). The summer timetable runs from Sunday, 31 March to Saturday, 26 October 2013. “This summer we are again offering new flights to fantastic holiday destinations around the Mediterranean and expanding our expertise in the holiday travel segment,” says Jens Bischof, Member of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board.

New attractive holiday destinations

Five attractive seasonal destinations, which will be served during the summer months, have been added to the timetable:

• A new service is planned to the Balearic island of Menorca, the smaller sister island of Mallorca. Non-stop flights from Munich, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin will land in Mahón, the capital of Menorca.
• Jerez de la Frontera in the Spanish holiday region of Costa de la Luz will be served this summer from Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.
• The Bulgarian resort of Varna is another new, sun-blessed destination that will be served from Düsseldorf.
• Flights to two new British destinations will also depart from Düsseldorf: Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. This route will be served all year round.

This summer, vacationers will benefit from a further six new connections to holiday regions around the Mediterranean. These, combined with existing summer destinations, will at times bring to 25 the number of seasonal destinations in Lufthansa’s route network, most of which will be served from several airports in Germany. In July and August, the number of flights to holiday destinations will be further increased. Passengers who wish to book a flight to one of the above-mentioned tourist destinations plus a hotel and a rental car with a single mouse click can put together a complete holiday package through the holiday portal www.lufthansaholidays.com.

Vancouver now served from Munich

Lufthansa is expanding its long-haul services. This summer, it is introducing a new route from Munich to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada to complement its existing service from Frankfurt. From 16 May 2013, the new route to the largest city in British Columbia will be served daily with an Airbus A330.

Business Class retrofit being speeded up

Lufthansa is speeding up the retrofit of its new Business Class cabin. It is already installed on all recently delivered Boeing 747-8s and on three Airbus A330 aircraft. However, the previous Business Class product will now be replaced sooner than originally planned on all Lufthansa’s existing long-haul aircraft. The company is investing a further 50 million euros in converting all its aircraft by the summer of 2015 at the latest.

FlyNet now available almost worldwide

To date, Lufthansa has equipped 88 aircraft, and thus virtually its entire long-haul fleet, with FlyNet, its broadband Internet service. The only exceptions are a few Boeing 747-8s and Airbus A380s, and next year these aircraft types are also due to be equipped with the innovative technology. FlyNet is now available almost worldwide, except in the airspace over China, as a broadcast licence has not yet been granted.

New Boeing 747-8 service to Hong Kong

The latest addition to the Lufthansa fleet, the Boeing 747-8, has rapidly become a favourite among passengers. The “Queen of the Skies” is currently deployed on routes to Washington and Los Angeles, as well as to Bangalore and Delhi in India. At the start of the summer timetable, Lufthansa is due to accept further deliveries of this state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly jumbo. This year, Lufthansa will take delivery of five new Boeing B747-8s from Seattle. At the end of March, Frankfurt – Hong Kong will become the next route to switch to the new aircraft.

Germanwings taking over routes from Lufthansa

At the start of the summer timetable, Germanwings is taking over a total of six of the point-to-point services that up to now have been operated by Lufthansa, starting with the routes from Hamburg to Vienna, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Dubrovnik, Nice and Palma de Mallorca. From 1 July of this year, further routes will gradually be operated by the new Germanwings. Customers and the general public will be informed in good time.

Passengers who have already booked a Lufthansa flight that is transferred to Germanwings will be automatically rebooked on Germanwings. All Lufthansa’s intra-European routes that are not routed through the airline’s Frankfurt and Munich hubs are due to be taken over by Germanwings, which will offer new, attractive fares.

With the introduction of the 2013 summer timetable, Lufthansa is withdrawing its services to Perm and Kazan in Russia for financial reasons. At the same time, however, the airline is increasing frequencies on its routes to Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.