Tag Archives for lufthansa.
There’s no ‘security issue’ with a 747 taking off from the airport, which was allowed until Lufthansa brought theirs there to store. In tactics one associates more with New Jersey than The Netherlands, Lufthansa doesn’t want to do dismantling work with the on-site company, so the government wouldn’t let them leave. Now that there’s been public scrutiny however it’s been deemed ‘a mere paperwork issue’ and the supposed safety issues have gone away.
A Lufthansa Group employee memo outlines plans for their airlines to “go into ‘winter mode’ hibernation” from mid-December through the end of February.
Germany’s Die Welt is reporting that the head of Lufthansa’s cabin crew union demanded “one million euros from Lufthansa” to agree to “job losses and reduced pay” for members as part of the airline’s restructuring and bailout.
The union, for its part, denies these claims as it fights to minimize the thousands of jobs that are expected to be lost at Lufthansa.
Lufthansa’s hypothetical thought experiment about a future world that differed from our own, in which they hadn’t cancelled the flight, might be ripe for a TV script – indeed, the writers are running out of ideas for the rest of 2020 – but carry no legal force.
Lufthansa was given slots at congested airports – a huge government subsidy. Those slots were made perpetual property rights of the airline. That’s a barrier to competition. The E.U. has rules against subsidies. To waive them, and allow Germany to provide a $9.8 billion injection into the airline, they wanted competition, but they’re unlikely to get it.
Since people aren’t flying, aircraft are parked all over the world. Many of those passenger planes also carried cargo. While the worldwide economic slowdown has limited the amount of cargo being shipped as well, there’s tremendous demand for things like food and personal protective equipment. The reduction in cargo capacity has been greater than the reduction in cargo demand.
That’s created an opportunity to convert passenger aircraft to cargo.
While there’s no doubt that airlines are struggling in the face of a sudden evaporation of demand for their product, what’s especially striking about this moment is the success airlines are having at the political game given that public health concerns might take budgetary priority – such as prioritizing funds for hospital beds, protective equipment, ventilators (which don’t appear to do much good) but just as importantly for treatments and ultimately vaccine research.
They aren’t refusing to give refunds. They just aren’t processing the refunds. As Jerry Seinfeld might have said, “anyone can take the refund request, but it’s the processing that matters.” The airline can slow walk refunds, it believes, with impunity.
I’ve written about airlines like JetBlue and United breaking the law by refusing customer refunds. Other airlines like SWISS and British Airways have used trickery to keep customers from being aware of their refund options when purchased flights no longer operate.
Two more airlines have suspended all ticket refunds, and apparently this even includes for customers who purchased ‘refundable’ tickets.
In 1989 David Hasselhof stood atop the Berlin Wall belting out “Looking for Freedom.” Less than a year later East Germans were finally free.
Thirty one years after David Hasselhof stood between East and West Berlin the East’s old airport may finally be freed as the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, replacing Berlin Tegel. It’s a costly reminder of East German-style planning.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
