Game on: Lufthansa and Air France shared an anna.aero EURO ANNIE Prize last week for “Flag Carrier With The Most New Routes” – Lufthansa for Berlin expansion (+32 routes) and Air France for its new bases in Marseille (+16) Toulouse (+11), and Nice (+4). Note: The net totals here do not consider a route to be ‘dropped’ if it is switched within the airline group, or to another airport in the same city.
Here at anna.aero, we love to acknowledge, support and celebrate when airlines boldly decide to enter new markets, either starting untried routes or choosing to compete with other carriers on existing routes. The airlines and airports involved are always happy to promote these new developments which has enabled us to have our weekly Cake Of The Week and Route Of The Week features. However, we also know that many of our readers are interested in which routes airlines decide to stop operating. This information is, not surprisingly, rather less well publicised by airlines and airports for obvious reasons. This week, however, we take a look at the route casualties during the last year at Europe’s three biggest legacy carriers; Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa, something we also did around this time last year.
All three carriers have had an eventful 12 months. Air France has been expanding its route network in the regions, while British Airways (BA) owner IAG has acquired bmi British Midland to integrate into BA’s London Heathrow network. At present, bmi services continue to operate under their own flight numbers so have not yet impacted on our analysis. Meanwhile Lufthansa has benefited from a new runway at its main base at Frankfurt and from the (relative) strength of the German economy.
Air France drops several low-frequency routes to Corsica
A closer look at Air France’s network changes reveals that a number of low-frequency routes have been dropped from Ajaccio and Bastia airports on the island of Corsica. In three cases, the route has been taken over by local carrier Air Corsica, while two other routes continue to be served by easyJet. In Paris, Air France has dropped daily flights to Asturias/Oviedo (in Spain), Leipzig (in Germany) and Milan Malpensa. It has also dropped long-haul flights to Abu Dhabi and Newark, and passed over the responsibility of serving Seattle to its SkyTeam partner Delta.
| Route | WF (WS) in S11 | Last operated | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ajaccio – Barcelona | 2 (100) | Sep 2011 | |
| Ajaccio – Clermont-Ferrand | 2 (100) | Sep 2011 | Operated by Air Corsica from Jun 2012 (1/wk) |
| Ajaccio – Metz | 2 (100) | Sep 2011 | |
| Ajaccio – Geneva | 1 (50) | Sep 2011 | Competing with easyJet (6/wk in Aug 2012) |
| Ajaccio – Basel/Mulhouse | 1 (50) | Sep 2011 | Competing with easyJet (3/wk in Aug 2012) |
| Ajaccio – Montpellier | 1 (47) | Aug 2011 | |
| Ajaccio – Toulouse | 3 (194) | Sep 2011 | Operated by Air Corsica from May 2012 (1/wk) |
| Ajaccio – Quimper | 1 (70) | Sep 2011 | |
| Bastia – Bordeaux | 1 (72) | Sep 2011 | |
| Bastia – Clermont-Ferrand | 1 (50) | Sep 2011 | |
| Bastia – Metz/Nancy | 1 (50) | Aug 2011 | |
| Bastia – Montpellier | 3 (150) | Sep 2011 | |
| Bastia – Toulouse | 2 (100) | Sep 2011 | Operated by Air Corsica from July 2012 (1/wk) |
| Bordeaux – Lisbon | 7 (350) | Apr 2012 | Competing with TAP Portugal (7/wk) and easyJet (4/wk) |
| Lyon – Birmingham | 8 (400) | Mar 2012 | |
| Lyon – Hamburg | 8 (400) | Mar 2012 | |
| Paris CDG – Abu Dhabi | 4 (876) | Feb 2012 | Competing with Etihad (14/wk) |
| Paris CDG – Asturias | 18 (900) | Mar 2012 | |
| Paris CDG – Calvi | 2 (307) | Aug 2011 | |
| Paris CDG – Leipzig | 13 (650) | Mar 2012 | |
| Paris CDG – Milan Malpensa | 27 (4234) | Oct 2011 | Lufthansa Italia also operated route until end of Oct 2011. Competing with easyJet (44/wk in Sep 2012) |
| Paris CDG – Newark | 7 (1533) | Mar 2012 | Competing with Continental/United (14/wk) |
| Paris CDG – Seattle | 7 (1904) | Mar 2012 | SkyTeam partner Delta has taken over the route (7/wk) |
| Paris Orly – Annecy | 12 (564) | Nov 2011 | Chalair started route in Feb 2012. 13/wk in S12. |
| Paris Orly – Tunis | 1 (165) | Aug 2011 | Competing with Tunis Air (35/wk in S12). Transavia.com France starts service in July 2012 (6/wk). |
| Toulouse – Düsseldorf | 6 (300) | Oct 2011 | |
| Source: SRS Analyser, Air France WF: Weekly Frequency WS: Weekly Seats |
|||
Regional services (previously operated at least daily) have been cut between Lyon and Birmingham, Lyon and Hamburg, and Toulouse and Düsseldorf. In addition to these routes, which have been identified by comparing August 2011 with August 2012, Air France has also announced that it is dropping its Paris CDG to Orlando service from early September as well as its relatively new routes from Marseille to Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Beirut and Düsseldorf.
BA drops Cagliari and Montego Bay; moves two routes to Gatwick
If legacy carriers dropping routes is a sign of problems, then British Airways would appear to be in good shape at present as only six routes have been “dropped” during the last year, and two of those do not really count as they were reallocated from London Heathrow to London Gatwick. One route (Aarhus – Helsinki) was operated by its Scandinavian franchise partner Sun-Air, while another (London City to Copenhagen) is operated by its subsidiary British Airways CityFlyer. That just leaves Gatwick to Cagliari which was dropped at the end of last summer, and Gatwick to Montego Bay in Jamaica which was dropped at the start of the current summer season.
| Route | WF (WS) in S11 | Last operated | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Heathrow – Algiers | 7 (1043) | Mar 2012 | Moved to London Gatwick at start of S12. Air Algerie operates 5/wk in S12 |
| London Heathrow – Mauritius | 3 (825) | Oct 2011 | Moved to London Gatwick at start of W11. Air Mauritius operates 4/wk in S12. |
| London Gatwick – Cagliari | 3 (420) | Oct 2011 | easyJet started London Stansted flights to Cagliari in March 2010. |
| London Gatwick – Montego Bay | 2 (550) | Mar 2012 | Still served by Thomson Airways (1/wk), Virgin Atlantic (2/wk) in S12 |
| London City – Copenhagen | 11 (860) | May 2012 | Operated by British Airways CityFlyer |
| Aarhus – Helsinki | 6 (191) | Dec 2011 | Operated by BA franchise carrier Sun-Air |
| Source: OAG, British Airways WF: Weekly Frequency WS: Weekly Seats |
|||
Lufthansa Italia network closed down; Stuttgart gets more germanwings
During the last year, Lufthansa completed the closing down of its Lufthansa Italia operation at Milan Malpensa airport with the termination of flights to Barcelona, Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Ibiza, Lisbon, London Heathrow, Madrid, Naples, Olbia, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Paris CDG, Prague, Stockholm Arlanda and Warsaw. However, of more interest are the non-stop routes that Lufthansa has dropped from German airports during the last 12 months.
| Route | WF (WS) in S11 | Last operated | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cologne/Bonn – London Heathrow | 21 (2646) | Mar 2012 | Handed over to germanwings (21/wk) for S12 |
| Dresden – London Heathrow | 7 (588) | Mar 2012 | |
| Düsseldorf – Athens | 7 (902) | Jan 2012 | Served by Star Alliance partner Aegean Airlines (4/wk) in S12 |
| Düsseldorf – Bergen | 1 (84) | Sep 2011 | |
| Düsseldorf – Gdansk | 7 (588) | Oct 2011 | |
| Düsseldorf – Moscow DME | 14 (1489) | May 2012 | Flights moved to Moscow Vnukovo. Served by airberlin (14/wk) and S7 (1/wk) in S12. |
| Frankfurt – Addis Ababa | 5 (1235) | Mar 2012 | Becomes one-stop service this summer via Khartoum. Served by Star Alliance partner Ethiopian Airlines in S12 |
| Frankfurt – Calgary | 6 (1482) | Feb 2012 | Served by Star Alliance partner Air Canada (7/wk), Air Transat (2/wk) and Condor (2/wk) |
| Frankfurt – Guangzhou | 3 (741) | Mar 2012 | |
| Frankfurt – Hyderabad | 3 (741) | Oct 2011 | |
| Frankfurt – Kolkata | 3 (663) | Mar 2012 | |
| Hamburg – Gothenburg | 7 (518) | Dec 2011 | |
| Hamburg – Moscow DME | 4 (600) | May 2012 | Flights moved to Moscow Vnukovo |
| Munich – Bursa | 3 (378) | Oct 2011 | |
| Munich – Klagenfurt | 20 (1440) | Jan 2012 | |
| Munich – Tashkent | 3 (276) | Oct 2011 | |
| Stuttgart – Bilbao | 7 (670) | May 2012 | Handedover to germanwings (4/wk) for S12 |
| Stuttgart – Bremen | 13 (1300) | Jun 2012 | Handed over to germanwings (17/wk) for S12 |
| Stuttgart – Brussels | 16 (1120) | May 2012 | Handed over to germanwings (16/wk) for S12 |
| Stuttgart – London Heathrow | 21 (2070) | Feb 2012 | Handed over to germanwings (21/wk) for S12. Also served by British Airways (14/wk) in S12. |
| Stuttgart – Manchester | 6 (420) | Jun 2012 | Handed over to germanwings (5/wk) for S12 |
| Stuttgart – Palma de Mallorca | 2 (246) | Oct 2011 | Served by germanwings (14/wk), airberlin (22/wk), Condor (7/wk) and TUIfly (11/wk) |
| Source: OAG, Lufthansa WF: Weekly Frequency WS: Weekly Seats |
|||
Many of Lufthansa’s international services from Stuttgart have been handed over to its low-cost subsidiary germanwings, which already has a well established base at the airport. Whether the decision by Ryanair to set up a base at nearby Karlsruhe-Baden this summer was a factor in this move is unclear. From the airline’s main base at Frankfurt, Calgary (Canada) is now operated solely by Star Alliance partner airline Air Canada, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) has become a one-stop service via Khartoum (but is still served non-stop by Star Alliance partner Ethiopian Airlines), while Indian routes to Hyderabad and Kolkata have been terminated. Whether this has anything to do with Air India’s membership rejection by Star Alliance last year is unknown. In Russia, Lufthansa has decided to shift some of its routes from Moscow Domodedovo to Moscow Vnukovo instead.
One Comment
I have recently booked flights between FRA and ADD so am confused by your table of LH’s dropped services. According to Amadeus, LH continues to operate six days per week, calling at Khartoum in both directions. The ET service operates non-stop but only 6 days per week, not seven.