"Lufthansa Unveils First-Class-Only Frankfurt Terminal"

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Lufthansa Unveils First-Class-Only Frankfurt Terminal
Bloomberg News


Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's third- largest airline, introduced a 14.8
million-euro ($19 million) terminal just for first-class passengers at
Frankfurt Airport, part of an effort to sidestep low-cost competition by
selling more premium-fare tickets. 

Travelers using the terminal, which opens Dec. 1, will each be provided with
their own personal assistants, offices, showers and baths and lounges with
access to on-demand movies, music or the Internet, the airline said today.
They will be taken to their planes in DaimlerChrysler AG Mercedes-Benz
S-Class cars or Porsche AG Cayenne sport-utility vehicles. 

``With the first-class terminal and the first-class lounges, we're
continuing to build on our top position in the top segment while other
airlines abandon it,'' Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Mayrhuber told
journalists at a press conference, adding that he expects about 350
passengers daily to use the terminal. 

Lufthansa was the first airline to offer business-class-only scheduled
service in June 2002, starting with a route between Dusseldorf, Germany, and
Newark, New Jersey. The Cologne, Germany- based carrier talking with
potential partners about creating an unscheduled business-jet service for
travelers willing to pay higher fares for direct flights at short notice,
Mayrhuber said. 

Yields Decline 

An advertising campaign that started in August shifted Lufthansa's marketing
focus to customer service and quality from low fares. Yields, or average
revenue per passenger kilometer, fell 5.1 percent in the third quarter as
competition increased from discount airlines including Ryanair Holdings Plc.


Expanding first-class service offerings is being done ``not out of prestige,
but because it makes strategic sense'' to differentiate Lufthansa's brand,
said Thierry Antinori, Lufthansa's executive vice president of marketing. 

Germany is Europe's most populous country and its most competitive travel
market, with 10 low-cost carriers. Fraport AG's Frankfurt Airport is
Europe's second-busiest airfield after BAA Plc's London Heathrow and is
Lufthansa's main hub. 

Lufthansa plans to add a first-class-only terminal in Munich, its
second-biggest hub, ``by 2006 at the latest,'' Mayrhuber said. The company
is spending 30 million euros to upgrade first-class service on the ground,
not including the Munich plans. 

``We won't say how much extra it will cost per passenger, but these
customers are worth it,'' said Carsten Spohr, the head of the carrier's
service and personnel division. 

The company declined to say how much of total traffic or sales comes from
premium-fare passengers. 

First-class sections on Lufthansa's long-haul planes include eight of the
250 seats on its Airbus SAS A340-300 airliners and 16 of the 350 seats on
its Boeing Co. 747-400 models, Mayrhuber said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************