Lufthansa is going Shopping

[Few Cloudy]

A gentle bit of expansionism is going on at Lufthansa.

Sounds a bit like Ilkley Moor bah't 'at - especially the line:
"then we shall all 'ave eaten thee"...

They may be eating some Swiss cheese - you know - the one with Swiss air in the holes...

Watch this space, which I sure it will soon become.

FC.

[bmibaby.com]

Lufthansa investing in swiss would be a very good move, that would give LH the foothold that it needs in the Germanic region of Europe, especially with the constant growth in these countries by the no-frills airlines. The airline has strong fortress hubs at FRA?MUC, it has good alliance partners & Mile&More member airlines through the Austrian Airlines Group airlines & Luxair (I'm not sure if there is any investment in these companies) and so covering these parts of German-speaking Europe, only had one major hole ... Switzerland!

Swiss is weak at the moment, but has the potential, under the right leadership with good ideas, to make ZRH a viable hub & there is also a strong market from other swiss airports that Swiss have pulled out of. LH would gain an important back up to FRA/MUC & take out the biggest competitor in its MUC market.

As an afterthought, Swiss like SNBA is big in Africa, which I don't think LH is. With Swiss' operation in Africa, this could leave the core trans-atlantics & asian routes to LH.

[tom de luxe]

Just fo clarification:
While there are co-operation agreements, and codeshares with LH from LUX to FRA, SCN and MUC, Lufthansa AG only has a 16% shareholding in Luxair. (There is also a codeshare to VIE with OS and to Paris with AF.)

But LG is not a "member" or "partner" of Miles & More. It merely "participates" in that program, which means that while Miles & More premium miles can be accrued and redeemed on LG flights, status miles cannot be accrued. Luxair has its very own sweet & lovely frequent flyer program, called "Courtesy Card" (http://www.luxair.lu/luxair/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=543&a=2578&l=en) :) . It won't get you free flights (you need M&M for that), but you will get free parking at LUX, and lots of other goodies.