Lufthansa rumour

[charliecossie]

There's a rumour started at FRA these last few days that LH are to stop flying a significant number of longhaul routes. Some of them to be picked up by United.
Anyone at LH heard anything?

[cws]

Yup, its true but UA will not fly it - nobody will. Lima, Rio, Taschkent is scraced for the winter and to the US they are thinning out a few routes. All due to capacity beeing in contrast to bookings.

[Gantenbein]

Not a rumour. This was in the International Herald Tribune, august 8:

FRANKFURT The German airline Lufthansa said Tuesday that it would reduce the number of long-haul flights to "counteract the sharp downturn in the world economy and its impact on intercontinental air traffic."

From the start of the 2001-2002 winter timetable, Lufthansa will cease operating its services to Rio de Janeiro. Connections to Bogota and Tashkent will be discontinued in early 2002.

At the same time, Lufthansa will deploy smaller aircraft on North Atlantic routes from Frankfurt to Atlanta, Detroit and Vancouver. And two flights weekly will be scrapped on the Frankfurt-New York route.

"The weakening global economy, originating in America, has had a significant impact on the airline business," Lufthansa said. "Demand in intercontinental traffic is well below the previous year's level.

"Airlines, including Lufthansa, are additionally burdened by rising costs for fuel, maintenance services and personnel," the airline said. "The entire industry is coming under increasing pressure to ponder capacity adjustments."

[411A]

Many cargo services cancelled as well. Very good news for some, and I don't mean LH pilots.

[charliecossie]

Thanks folks, didn't know it'd been in the press. Dunno if there's more to come as UA staff at FRA are talking about 10 flights a day next year. That's rather good news for UA/LH's main competitor. :D