Airline confident of passenger growth

Published: 3/21/2000

Lufthansa has reported that, in 1999, while total passenger volume fell by 13% to 482,000 passengers on its Russian routes, this masked a significant upswing of 30% in the fourth quarter, that has been sustained in the first two months of 2000. Reflecting the generally optimistic view expressed by British Airways over the last few weeks. The company is therefore confident, that this year will yield positive results and has no plans to cancel any routes. Its summer schedule (26th March to 29th October) will include daily flights from Moscow to Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Munich. Evening flights will operate daily from St Petersburg to Frankfurt and twice weekly in the morning. The airline will also fly three times a week from Frankfurt to Samara, Yekaterinburg, Askhabad, Baku and Tashkent and twice weekly from Frankfurt to Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Perm. Scheduled flights will operate five times per week from Frankfurt to Alma-Ata. Lufthansa is extending its cooperative agreements with Russian airlines. Agreements are already in force with Aeroflot, Transaero, Pulkovo and Samara and an agreement with Sibir is expected. According to the airline, some 35% of its clients on Russian routes are Russians, 30% are Germans and 35% are other foreigners. 40% of Russian travellers fly directly to Germany, while 60% use Frankfurt as a transit point for other destinations. When Lufthansa joined Star Alliance, the benefits of this transit point increased and helped passenger volume growth. At present, Lufthansa is only permitted to fly to seven Russian cities. Such alliances provide it with much greater access to the region. In addition, Lufthansa carries cargo to 30 Russian cities. The completion, scheduled for 2002, of $13m Cargo Terminal Pulkovo (CTP), in St. Petersburg will allow the airline access to northern Russia, including cities such as Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. Globe Ground, Lufthansa Aviation Group's subsidiary company, will have a 40% holding in the company. The St. Petersburg and Leningrad regional administrations will hold another 40%, and outside investors will hold 20%. EBRD is financing the construction and has so far provided $4.5 m of funding. During 1999, Lufthansa Technik increased sales to Eastern Europe, Russia, and CIS. Its main Russian and CIS clients are Aeroflot, Uzbek Airlines and Transaero, which use Lufthansa Technik to service their foreign aircraft. Last year, Lufthansa added Kazakhstan Airlines (now part of AKG) and the Georgian carrier, Airzena Airlines to its client list.

Article ID: 1714