Nationwide to Munich
From Business Report
Nationwide to introduce Munich flight
July 21, 2004
By Audrey d'Angelo
Cape Town - Nationwide Airlines, which entered the international market late last year with flights between Johannesburg and London, will be unopposed on its proposed new service between Johannesburg and Munich.
Lufthansa German Airlines, which for the past two years has run a seasonal service between Johannesburg and Munich, will not do so this year.
Germany's LTU runs a weekly flight to Munich but only from Cape Town.
Executive chairman Vernon Bricknell said Nationwide was negotiating for a second Boeing 767 extended-range aircraft and would start a service to Munich as soon as it had acquired one.
Lufthansa will introduce a daily non-stop flight from Frankfurt to Cape Town while retaining its daily flights from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, using a Boeing 747-400 on both routes. This would effectively boost its seat capacity to South Africa by 70 percent.
Although the daily flight to Cape Town would start in November, Lufthansa would introduce a stop-gap non-stop service three days a week from October 16 because of "high demand".
For the past 12 years Lufthansa has served Cape Town with a flight going on from Johannesburg.
Singapore Airlines is also boosting its service to Cape Town, adding a weekly non-stop flight from October 31.
Lim Meowseng, its general manager in southern Africa, said the market from Singapore was not seasonal, unlike that from Europe.