Lufthansa cuts costs

[crlhub]

Lufthansa économise, Swiss touchée.

http://www.tdg.ch/economie/entreprises/ ... y/16502467

Konkurrenz zwingt Lufthansa auf Sparkurs.

http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/untern ... 58,00.html

[RoMax]

- 'No' fleet growth until 2014, capacity will not rise in 2012, in 2013 and 2014 there will be a max increase in seat count of 4%
- The original 9% capacity increase for Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines was cut in October, now they are planning 2% (don't know for which time period though).
- They'll cut loss making routes. They already stopped Guangzhou, Kalkutta and Hyderabad recently. Routes to Nanjing and Bangkok are in danger... BKK is a suprise for me, but never say never (look at AF that reduced BKK to 3 weekly and considers to stop that route, for many European airlines the yields have dropped dramaticly on this route due to high competition, and Thai will introduce the A380 to FRA and CDG)
- Germanwings will take over a large part of the domestic (and even regional) network, except out of MUC and FRA.
- First class may be 'removed' from a part of the fleet, LH's long haul fleet has a low density configuration, with high amount of premium seats. This proves to be problem for certain routes. That's also a part of the reason why the planned route from DUS to Tokyo is undefinitely delayed and Air China was 'asked' to open PEK-DUS instead of starting the route themself.
- Rumours say LH's considering to introduce Premium economy
- LH wants to improve profitability by 1,5 billion.
- LH asks a 10-20% reduction in airport fees

Because LH may have to save personell costs the unions also reacted on this. Union Verdi said it fears job losses and they will fight to prevent this. A spokeswoman told Reuters: "Lufthansa makes good profit on operative base and we don't believe this saving programme is necessary."
Lufthansa says the saving programme is needed because they have to invest in new fuel efficient aircraft.

When talking about fleet. Swiss is planning to retire the A340 fleet as from/by (don't know that exactly) 2014. They are searching for bigger aircraft as they call the A343 to small for their needs as they already have the A333 for the routes will lower demand.

[RoMax]

In Dutch:
http://www.flightlevel.be/12307/lufthansa-concretiseert-bezuinigingen

[cnc]

hmm and this at the same time when LX announces they need bigger longhaulers then the A343.
i wonder if LH will allow them to buy second hand A346 since a 744 move from LH to LX would be costly and LH still needs its own A346

[BrightCedars]

Who would want 346's when the benchmark is the 77W?

[cnc]

Who would want 346's when the benchmark is the 77W?

isn't that obvious? the A346 is much cheaper and has the same type rating as the older A343's and the new A333's

[sn26567]

Lufthansa plans to have its remaining 32 B737-300s and 22 B737-500s retired by 2016. It will replace the aircraft by new A320 family aircraft being delivered to itself and subsidiary germanwings and by making some cuts to its European route network.

Source: CH-Aviation

This is for sure an implementation of the cost-cutting plan: rationalisation of the fleet with less aircraft types, and reduction in the number of routes!

[DeltaWiskey]

rationalisation of the fleet with less aircraft types, and reduction in the number of routes!

a better phrasing would be: a reduction/drop of loss-making routes

[sn26567]

Lufthansa is reportedly planning to cut up to 3000 positions in its administration as part of its restructuring plan announced several days ago. According to a news report in Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung it is also considering closing subsidiary germanwings and merging it into a lower cost division of Lufthansa that would operate all European services from German airports other than Frankfurt International and Munich Franz Josef Strauss International (the opposite of what was previously reported).

Source: ch-aviation

3000 positions represents not less than one half of the 6000 administrative jobs at Lufthansa. 1500 of those jobs would disappear at the main base, Frankfurt. A Lufthansa spokesman refused to comment the figures, but said that job losses are inevitable to remain competitive.