Lufthansa remains well-anchored in Asia

LUFTHANSA EVP for sales and marketing, Thierry Antinori, confirmed in Berlin the strong commitment of Lufthansa into the Asian market. Theairline continues to position itself as one of the strongest brands among world airlines and a global player: “We stand for global mobility in the 21st century,” explained Antinori. Over the last five years, Lufthansa has indeed extended its portfolio with participation in various airlines such as Bmi (UK), Luxair(Luxemburg), Swiss and most recently in JetBlue (USA). “Our 19 percent ownership in JetBlue capital shows that we see new opportunities arising from the recent EU-USA open-skies agreement. We prefer to invest in a local US airline such as JetBlue instead of making big noise in the media about a new service to London,” he added.

While Lufthansa continues to strengthen its European network by adding eight new destinations and dozens of new routes, the airline is also strengthening its network to the East.

“Fast Speed East: that is the future and we take this seriously,” added Antinori. Munich will have new flights to Mumbai, Shenyang and Singapore.“We chose Singapore as it has the highest number of high-yield passengers in South-east Asia. And Mumbai is a logical choice after Delhi. Shenyang-Munich and Naning-Frankfurt show our determination to serve high-potential secondary cities in Mainland China,”he stressed. The move to the East is also reflected by the recent integration of Air China and Shanghai Airlines into Star Alliance as well as recent announcements for the integration of Air India.