It seems there is hope that German airline Lufthansa, which has resumed its seasonal service between Cape Town and Frankfurt, might stay on all year round – if not next year, then in the fairly near future.
There was a chorus of complaint when Lufthansa started the pattern of withdrawing at the end of March and coming back in October. But at that time SAA still flew to Frankfurt from here, the globalisation of business was still beginning and travel to Europe had not grown to the extent it did later.
Cape Town’s success in attracting international conferences that help to bring thousands of international visitors in the winter months was still in the future. Since then SAA has adopted a policy of flying overseas only from Joburg, except for its London service from Cape Town, and KLM is the only airline still flying to Europe from our airport in winter.
Axel Simon, Lufthansa’s director for southern Africa, tells me he knows there is a big demand for direct flights to Germany.
Lufthansa has increased the total number of seats on its routes to Cape Town and Joburg by 60 percent this summer, replacing the Airbus A 340-600 it used on the Cape Town route with a larger Boeing 747-400 which increases the number of seats from here by 8 percent. The flights are currently attracting average passenger loads of 85 percent.
Simon said the service was proving very popular with leisure travellers at present and attracting frequent flyers who had miles earned on its loyalty programme.
The largest increase in seat numbers, of course, is on the Joburg route where Lufthansa uses a giant Airbus A 380 for its daily flights. It has ordered a total of 15 A 380s with options for a further three, and according to Simon these will make it the largest A 380 operator in Europe.
It seems curious that at present its A 380s have business class seats which, although they recline a lot, are not quite lie flat beds. Apparently this is due to the delays which plagued the delivery of the first A 380s due to the differing demands of the airlines that ordered them.
To avoid further delay, Lufthansa did not change its earlier specifications for its first A 380s and went ahead with the older type of business class seats. But those on the A 380s currently being delivered are lie-flat and the earlier ones are being changed.
Joburg was the third city to which Lufthansa used the giant aircraft, following New York and Tokyo. Like Air France and the Middle Eastern airlines it has identified Africa as an area of growth. Together with its subsidiary Swiss International Airlines and alliance partners Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines it provides 217 flights a week to 36 African cities.
Simon said that next year Lufthansa would celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first flight to Joburg.
It launched its first service on the route In May 1962 with two flights a week by way of Athens, Khartoum and Nairobi. But like other airlines, it is facing “core challenges”. Competition from the Arabian Gulf airlines is putting passenger and cargo revenues under pressure.
And in spite of cost-saving measures, a significant impact is being made by rising fuel prices and taxes, the compulsory emission trading scheme for airlines flying to the EU expected to be introduced next year, as well as high fees and airport charges.
Simon thinks that the airline industry will continue to grow in the foreseeable future, but he expects slower growth in the year to come.
African flights
Although many people have the impression that flights to other parts of Africa leave from Joburg, state-owned regional airline SA Express flies from Cape Town to Maputo, Hoedspruit near the Kruger Park, and Kimberley.
The airline is acquiring new aircraft and has already taken delivery of a new 250-seat Bombardier. It increases the size of its fleet to 27, with two more planes to come.
Lulu Bam, SA Express communications manager, tells me the new aircraft will be used on its existing route network but there are plans to extend it later. - Weekend Argus