Lufthansa to offer the most cutting-edge and exclusive travelling experience
• The Greek island of Crete is one of the new, sunny destinations of Lufthansa.
• Two extra weekly flights from Munich to Athens added to the Lufthansa summer timetable.
• Innovative product enhance Lufthansa’s services to its Greek customers.
• Roll out of new Premium Economy Cabin on intercontinental flights.
Lufthansa continues to enrich its program and services, keeping its promise to its customers in Greece, for constant growth and development. Thus, the German airline is launching a new flight to Crete, one of the most popular holiday destinations for German but also European travellers. Commencing on May, 23rd, every Saturday, Lufthansa will be flying to Heraklion in just over three hours from Munich with an Airbus A320.
Besides the new route, Lufthansa is planning to further enhance tourist traffic to Athens, a destination with increasing demand for leisure and business travel. During summer season, the German airline will add two more weekly flights from Munich, connecting Bavaria with the Greek capital 23 times per week in total (3 daily flights and 2 extra weekly flights).
Among the Mediterranean destinations included in Lufthansa’s schedule, Greece has always been a key market in the region, proving that even in a difficult financial environment, numbers remain strong and show positive signs of even better results. Culture, climate, nature, all features that characterise Greece have been attracting numerous visitors from around the world. Numbers speak louder than words. According to the latest traffic figures to/from Greece, for the first nine months of 2014 inbound traffic to Greece with Lufthansa accounted for about 310.000 passengers -with Germany and the US being the key countries of origin, followed by other countries from Europe and from around the world- and outbound traffic from Greece around 161.000 passengers. Factors that contribute to this positive growth are the continuous product enhancements and innovations offered by Lufthansa, as well as the convenient and rich destination network.
Premium quality services
The airline’s main target is 100% customer-orientated services and products. This year’s major achievement was the introduction of Premium Economy on long-haul flights, by far the most cutting-edge and exclusive travelling experience, which is already available as of this past weekend on all 15 Boeing 747-8 aircraft and by the end of next year on all Lufthansa long haul aircraft offering some 1.5 million passengers per year the opportunity to choose extra comfort and quality at affordable prices. Alongside the new Premium Economy Class, Lufthansa continues to install the upgraded First and Business Class cabins onboard its long-haul aircraft. These innovation investments amount to 1 million euros daily and are setto be completed by late summer 2015. Lufthansa will then be in a position to offer its guests in all classes the exclusive travelling experience of a award winning five-star First Class as well as the new Business Class, where aircraft seats can be transformed at the touch of a button into a comfortable bed with a horizontal sleeping area of 1.98 metres long.
Another major enhancement was the new state-of-the-art entertainment system for short and mid haul flights which was introduced on Lufthansa’s flights from Frankfurt & Munich to a number of routes in the Mediterranean and beyond, giving passengers the possibility to watch a wide variety of Hollywood blockbusters films, the latest TV programs and listen to a plethora of music channels and albums on their personal smartphones, tablets or notebooks. The system is simple and user-friendly, giving customers full control in choosing films and other programming at the time that suits them during their flight. This new product will be offered occasionally on flights to Greece and Cyprus. To use the system, passengers must download the special free “Lufthansa Entertainment” app from the Apple app store or Google Play before using the wi-fi system on board one of the 20 Airbus A321 aircraft equipped with the in-flight entertainment system for medium haul flights.
“Lufthansa has been offering its upscale product to Greece since 1959 and its top markings at the World Travel Awards as a Leading European Airline for many consecutive years proves that ‘everything happens for a reason’. It’s all a matter of proper planning, continuous investing and perfect servicing and these are the fields in which Lufthansa gets top scores on year-to-year basis. We are glad to see a continuous improvement in the traffic, which shows that we meet the demands of the travelers from both Greece and Cyprus, offering the strongest European and North American network. Jointly with SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, we offer services to more than 260 destinations in 100 countries on four continents, through the Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Brussels hubs”, mentioned Mr Harro Julius Petersen, Deutsche Lufthansa AG General Manager (Greece and Cyprus). “The main pillars for this improvement were our extensive network and routing combination within Lufthansa Group (LH, LX,SN, OS) and with A++ partners (United Airlines, Air Canada, etc), its best figures for punctuality, having achieved a significantly higher punctuality rate than any of its main European competitors”, added Mr Petersen.
Lufthansa has come a long way during its 55 years of presence in Greece. The Group fleet currently consists of 627 aircrafts – and expanding… another 295 airplanes are on order, valued at more than 36 billion euros at list prices and scheduled for delivery until 2025. Lufthansa doesn’t rest on its laurels, but keeps evolving and investing resources in quality and service for its guests and adopting new structures and innovative business models to tap into new growth opportunities and new customer groups. All in all, in 2014 the Group invested EUR 2.2 billion in modernizing and maintaining its aircraft fleet. Efforts and investments continue, aiming to achieve its objective of becoming the first Western five-star airline.
Lufthansa’s flights to/from Greece – Summer 2015
Munich – Athens
23 per week
Frankfurt – Athens
21 per week
Munich – Heraklion
1 per week
Lufthansa Group’s flights to/from Greece – Summer 2015
Lufthansa
45 per week
SWISS
35 per week
Austrian
14 per week
Brussels
3 per week
Germanwings
61 per week
Lufthansa Group
158 per week
