Lufthansa introduces more services in 2016 starting with the reduction of print media on board and increasing online eJournal editions starting this month. It will be introducing broadband on short and medium-haul flights from Summer this year.
Inflight Newspapers and Magazines Go Digital
Lufthansa will be introducing from 21 January 2016 an eJournal approach with a much wider range of German-language and international newspapers and magazines. This will reduce the weight from the print publications which translates into fuel savings.
Any traveller on Lufthansa can log into lh.com/e-journals within three days of their departure using their name and reservation code or ticket number and download two eJournals of their choice onto their mobile device. Customers have already been able to do this since the beginning of January this year.
From March, the German airline plans to allow guests different numbers of such downloads based on their class of travel and frequent flyer status. Additional downloads can be obtained with an additional fee. The PDF eJournal downloads can also be read after the flight. Print, newspapers and magazines will continue to be available at Lufthansa’s lounges, in First and Business Class on board and a Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich airports.
Broadband Internet on Short and Medium-Haul flights from Summer 2016
From early summer this year, Lufthansa will offer broadband on board its short and medium haul flights within Germany. The first aircraft will be fitted with the new technology in early summer 2016.
The airline has partnered with Inmarsat using its Global Xpress network (Ka-band) to offer seamless, reliable coverage on short and medium-haul flights.
The airline is committing to a flight trial programme for a new hybrid network being developed for Europe. The Europe Aviation Network combines an S-band satellite from Inmarsat with a complimentary LTE ground network provided by Deutsche Telekom. This offers potential in terms of costs and can be flexibly adapted to suit the broadband transmission demands of the future. It will commence a flight trial programme of the new technology next year.
Accolades won by Lufthansa in 2015
In December last year, Lufthansa was awarded Best Long Haul Airline (based in) Europe by AirlineRatings.com. This is the second time in a row the airline has won this award. This award was judged by a panel of experienced industry experts based on comfort, innovation, value and safety across all classes of travel. Other accolades won by the airline included the World Airline Awards’ Best Airline Transatlantic and Best Airline in Western Europe and World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge. Business Travel Awards 2016 honoured the airline with the Best Short-Haul Airline title.
Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance.
Lufthansa Group Achieves Record Number of Passengers in 2015
The airlines of Lufthansa Group which include Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines, Germanwings, Brussels Airlines and SunExpress transported 107.7 million passengers in 2016, achieving a new record. This makes up 1.6% more passengers than in the previous year. Over one million flights took off and achieved the highest ever seat load factor of 80.4%, which corresponds to an increase in capacity utilisation of 0.3 percentage points compared to 2014.
17 new aircraft were taken into service by the Lufthansa Group last year. The group airlines’ fleet will be amended by a further 251 jets over the next ten years. Cabin refurbishments in all classes last year included improvements in onboard services and the availability of the FlyNet broadband internet connection.
