Lufthansa is to be the first major carrier to use an executive aircraft on scheduled transatlantic service, although the move is more pragmatic than strategic.
The move sees Lufthansa resume a daily service between Dusseldorf and New York JFK airport with a 48-seat Boeing BBJ wet-leased from Switzerland's PrivatAir. Lufthansa axed the route following the events of 11 September, but business travellers were unhappy with being forced to connect at Frankfurt or Munich, and some were defecting to KLM to travel via Amsterdam to the US, says the carrier.
The service, launched on 17 June, will be operated for a year with the Boeing 737-700/-800 based BBJ when it will be reviewed. Future options are to stay with the BBJ or possibly to upgrade to an Airbus A340 that originally operated the route. Lufthansa stresses that using the BBJ is "a single solution in Lufthansa's network management" in a market that is currently too small for the A340, and not part of a wider plan to introduce similar business-class products from other secondary German cities.
Advance bookings for the route are encouraging, says Lufthansa, and it hopes to achieve near 100% load factors during the initial weeks of service. The on-board product will essentially be the equivalent of Lufthansa's regular business-class, with the main exception being individual Walkman television sets for passengers because the BBJ has no in-flight entertainment system. It will be priced as Lufthansa's business class fares and operate as a normal scheduled flight under LH flight numbers.
Several carriers have examined the use of executive aircraft on scheduled services, but the market collapse after September either delayed or cancelled proposed start-ups. United has abandoned its fledgling Avolar corporate aircraft venture, while the UK's Blue Fox has put back its plans to launch an all-business class widebody service between London Stansted and New York JFK. It is now targetting mid-2003. Blue Fox chief executive Derek Jewson says that changing attitudes following the US attacks has "reinforced the case" for a business-only service in a climate of heightened security. He adds that the steep fall in aircraft values has also presented opportunities, and that although the service will definitely be operated by a widebody aircraft, it will not necessarily be a Boeing 767-300ER as planned.
Jewson is sanguine about the delayed launch. "We will only make an announcement once everything is in line," he says, and that although raising the necessary capital is "taking time" the airline "is in serious discussions with people on finance." The aim to offer perks such as 50in seat pitch, DVD and on-board chefs are still in place.
Source: Airline Business
