Tuesday, June 9, 2020
June 9, 2020 (Canada). The Lufthansa Group of airlines will be significantly expanding its services in Canada and abroad over the next few months. This applies to both short and long-haul flights. The airline is expanding its flight schedules to offer its customers as many destination choices as possible.
In Canada, Lufthansa began offering three weekly, non-stop flights from Toronto to Frankfurt and back the week of June 1. On June 22, three weekly flights between Munich and Montreal will resume. On July 2, the airline will begin operating three weekly flights to and from Vancouver via its hub in Frankfurt. Edelweiss – a leisure-focused air carrier and SWISS subsidiary – is planning to resume service to and from both Calgary and Vancouver to Zurich in early July.
“We are excited and optimistic about the future,” said Hans DeHaan, Senior Director Canada, Lufthansa Group. “Canada has always been one of our most important and loyal markets and we are eager to get Canadians back in the air and traveling.”
In September, 90 percent of all originally planned short and medium-haul destinations and 70 percent of long-haul destinations will be serviced once again. Customers planning their autumn and winter holidays now have access to a comprehensive global network of connections via all hubs of the Group.
Lufthansa, specifically, will be flying more than 100 times a week to destinations in North America via its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich in autumn. Around 90 flights a week are planned to Asia, over 20 to the Middle East and over 25 to Africa. In Africa, for example, there will again be flights to Windhoek and Nairobi, in the Middle East to Beirut and Riyadh, in North America to Houston, Boston and Vancouver, in Asia to Hong Kong and Singapore.
On short- and medium-haul routes, Lufthansa will offer a total of 1,800 weekly connections from September onwards. There will be 102 destinations from Frankfurt and 88 from Munich, including Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Naples, Rhodes, Palermo, Faro, Madeira, Olbia, Dubrovnik, Reykjavik and many other summer destinations from Frankfurt.
Many of these destinations are already in the system and can, therefore, be booked. All destinations are updated daily on lufthansa.com and the websites of the respective Group carriers.
Lufthansa expanded its service concept on June 1. Customers receive a disinfecting wipe before every flight. On short- and medium-haul flights in Business Class, the beverage service and the normal meal service will be reactivated. On long-haul flights, guests in all classes will again be offered the usual range of beverages. In First and Business Class, customers will once again be able to choose from a range of dishes. In Economy Class, customers will also continue to receive a meal. Strict hygiene regulations continue to be adhered to during the service adjustments.
From July onwards, Austrian Airlines aircraft will take off on regular long-haul flights for the first time since mid-March. Bangkok, Chicago, New York (Newark) and Washington will then be available with up to three weekly flights. The European network offer will also be expanded to include various routes from July onwards - including flights to Greece.
In the fall, SWISS plans to return to about 85% of the destinations it served before the pandemic, with about one-third of its capacity on these routes. As Switzerland's airline, SWISS is committed to offering the widest possible range of services in the build-up phase. The initial focus here will be on European services from Zurich and Geneva. Further intercontinental destinations will also be reintroduced into the route network.
Eurowings is also significantly expanding its flight program for both business and leisure travelers and plans to fly to 80 percent of its destinations again in the course of the summer. Following the lifting of the travel warning, interest in holiday destinations such as Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia, in particular, is growing exponentially. Therefore, Eurowings will be putting 30 to 40 percent of its flight capacity back into the air in July with the main focus on flights from Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Cologne/Bonn.
When planning their trip, customers should take the current entry and quarantine regulations of the respective destinations into account. Throughout the entire trip, restrictions may be imposed due to stricter hygiene and safety regulations, for example, due to longer waiting times at airport security checkpoints.
From 8 June onwards, guests on all Lufthansa and Eurowings flights are obliged to wear a mouth-and-nose cover on board throughout the entire journey. This serves the safety of all passengers on the aircraft. The General Conditions of Carriage (GTC) will be amended accordingly. Lufthansa also recommends that passengers wear a mouth-nose cover during the entire journey, i.e. also before or after the flight at the airport, whenever the required minimum distance cannot be guaranteed without restriction.
