Lufthansa is finalising a solution for flights previously operated by its now-defunct CityLine subsidiary, whose closure has triggered short-notice suspensions and cancellations on a number of Munich routes. While the carrier has yet to confirm operations beyond May, services to Ljubljana are expected to resume in June, while the future of flights to Belgrade, Tivat and Rijeka remains uncertain. Lufthansa is also unlikely to reinstate the same number of frequencies originally planned under CityLine.
As a temporary measure, the airline is wet-leasing Embraer E195-E2 aircraft from Helvetic Airways and will deploy them on several Munich routes this May, including two rotations to Dubrovnik initially scheduled for CityLine. This is expected to be extended into the summer. The carrier is also utilising airBaltic aircraft on select domestic services that were previously due to be operated by CityLine.
All services to Ljubljana, Rijeka and Tivat have been cancelled in May, although flights remain scheduled from June onwards under CityLine inventory. In June, Lufthansa has 59 departures from Munich to Ljubljana scheduled, alongside five to Tivat and four to Rijeka. Furthermore, the airline has 79 flights from Munich to Belgrade filed with CityLine capacity in June, while just three services, on June 4, 7 and 14, are scheduled with mainline aircraft and are expected to remain unaffected. Four out of eight flights to Pula in June are also due to be operated by CityLine.
Over the past few days, Lufthansa has removed a number of routes from its network for the remainder of the summer season that had operated until the CityLine closure. The airline is expected to finalise its revised summer network by the end of the week. Lufthansa said, “The medium-term route planning for the coming months is being revised considering the capacity reduction. This will include optimisations to the short-haul offering for the entire summer season, thereby ensuring schedule stability for the flight plan period”.
Air Serbia is offering some great fares on all the ex-Yu routes from/to Munich impacted by these cancellations.
ReplyDeleteThey should actually go double daily, honestly.
DeleteI doubt they have the capacity. I'm surprised they had for daily flights.
DeleteIf they play it smart MUC can prove to be a goldmine for JU. Not only of o&d travel but also for offering connections to the region, Bulgaria Greece and Cyprus.
DeleteJU definitely has enough spare capacity of E-jets or Airbuses to offer double daily to MUC.
DeleteThat would also make it harder for LH to re-enter the market.
A bit overpriced from BEG, comparing Wizz
DeleteIt would be too much at this stage to offer double daily. After some time maybe and after seeing how "mighty" LH will react or how they will be able to react.
DeleteIt is quite possible LH will not have enough planes from main line to cover most of the cancelled routes.
@anon 09:36
DeletePut in bus ticket price and transfer time from FMM to Munich and multiple that for a family of 3 or 4. Not gona work for everyone.
I booked LJU-MUC for 112€ one way...LH had one way tickets for sale for about 300€
Delete@Anon 09:59, from MUC to city app 45min for 12 euros, from FMM to city app 1:30 minutes for avg 15 euro
Delete@9.36 you do realise Wizz Air is a low cost airline. You now expect Air Serbia to be cheaper than Wizz Air?
DeleteLet's not forget cabin luggage allowance in JU and in W6.
DeleteWhat a mess LH made! Unbelievable.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad Air Serbia started BEG-MUC with quite attractive prices. What a slap in the face of LH!
Lufthansa doesnt care at all about Air Serbia launching MUC with junk fares on the E195.
DeleteOf course it cares, Air Serbia will overtake a great part of P2P passengers.
DeleteUsually when you launch a new route and your aim is to get rid of a competitor you launch junk fares. Otherwise your strategy is just dumb.
DeleteLH will certainly feel presence of JU on BEG-MUC route. And they won't like it 🤣
DeleteAlso JU does not have "junk fares". Price of 187 EUR for return ticket is certainly not junk as LH starting price for return ticket FRA-BEG is 162 EUR.
So please do not talk about things you don't know.
I think LH has more serious problems than JU. Cuddos to JU, but the magnitude of the issues is beyond EXYU market not only JU.
DeleteThis is ex Yu site, so we actually do not care much about LH cancelled flights to anywhere else but to ex Yu.
DeleteAnd in that region the strongest kick for closing MUC route they got from JU.
BEG-MUC is a route that JU should have flown years ago.
DeleteEspecially since LH level of inflight service has deteriorated so much in recent years.
JU couldn't have chosen beter moment to start MUC.
DeleteJU could have profited from MUC for years now. And it would probably have forced LH to decrease or even cut service to BEG earlier.
DeleteLH hevily target transfers to northern europe, North America and Asia via Munich. JU largely offer the Balkans and p2p. There is room for both of them after this period. So JU have done well indeed. I'm sure Lufthansa will reorganise but its nice to see Air Serbia step up. Its good business practise indeed.
Delete@anon 09:40
DeleteAn unexpected gift from LH to the company that is well known for how to gain such situation. Bravo JU!
@09:38
Delete+1000
If this was any other airline it would be getting ripped to pieces by the mainstream press. But since its Lufthansa it barely gets a mention anywhere.
ReplyDeleteEspecially as they continue to sell tickets for flights that won't operate just a month from now.
DeleteFully agree.
DeleteEmirates were selling flights left right and centre that we not going to operate. Its not that uncommon
Delete@09:38
Delete+1000
There is no chance they can replace 2 daily LJU and up to 3 daily BEG with wet leased capacity in the middle of summer.
ReplyDeleteThey'll be back in the long run. Just a small cog in a huge system
DeleteA huge mess rather than a system more like it. Strikes, closed subsidiary over night, suspended routes over night while selling tickets for flights that won't happen, cost cutting...
DeleteI wonder if JU or OU had done all of this there would still be people cheering for them saying it's a small cog.
DeleteMaybe in that long run but they will certainly not return to the same position they had before this mess they created.
Delete@anon 09:17
DeleteSome people on Balkan still see Germany as perfect country with awesome working discipline and amazing products.
So, they can't mentally accept that something like this happens in that "awesome" country so I truly understand that kind of comments
However I feel pity for them.
I live in Germany and can confirm that Germany isn't the same as we know it from the past. It's unfortunately far from well organized, structured etc.
DeleteFrom what I heard MUC-LJU isn't coming back.
Delete@09:41 same can be said about exYu for good and bad
Delete@9.43 it's coming back.
DeleteSome still believe good old gasto fairytales
Delete@10.57 thats why they are more yugos in Germany right now than back then
DeleteNo, that’s why more of them went back here than ever
DeleteThey will return quite soon.
DeleteI expect LJU and BEG to be back in some capacity. RJK might just be handed over to OU.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteJust like handing a cane to a disabled person.
DeleteSometimes handing a cane to a disabled person is exactly what they need.
DeleteWould now be the time for someone to suggest to replace the incompetent CEO running this airline?
ReplyDeleteLH Net Profit
Delete2025: €1.34B
2024: €1.40B
2023: €1.67B
Ben, add to that horrible labour relations, one of the most outdated products in the sky, the Allegris fiasco etc. etc.
DeleteCarsten Spohr is a joke and it's incredible how he's still allowed to sit at the helm of the company.
Just a sidenote, 90 DAILY flights cancelled in Munich in May.
ReplyDeleteWow. MUC will definitely feel it.
DeleteWe'll see, VIE is doing ok despite Wizz Air leaving and Ryanair scaling back on its operations.
DeleteNeither of them had 90 daily flights and neither of them had transfer passengers.
DeleteAnd MUC just opened the new T1 pier...
DeleteT1 is not for Lufthansa flights if you didnt know ...
DeleteMUC and LH are building a new T2 Extension because LH chose MUC to be their focus on longhaul growth
LH have done everything to try and bury this debacle. They announced new uniforms and new fare types since closing City Line...
ReplyDeleteThey should not have created that debacle on the first place.
DeleteI think MUC won't recover from this They lost 10% of their traffic for a reason, CityLine wasn't making money. The economic climate in Europe and especially in Germany means that Lufthansa has too many hubs so close to each other: FRA, MUC, ZRH and VIE.
ReplyDeleteI think MUC will slowly die out and LH will put greater focus on FRA which just opened a brand new terminal and expanded capacity by quite a lot.
ahahaha you might be tottally wrong https://www.aerotelegraph.com/flughaefen/lufthansa-hat-entschieden-und-baut-in-muenchen-aus/1bt4mqh
Deletethey will close all the airlines they have acquired before they give up the double hub in MUC and FRA. take it to the bank
DeleteI am really curious about early bookings for JU. If the bookings are good, they might upgrade to an Airbus.
ReplyDeleteI wold rather see double daily Ejet than daily Airbus.
DeleteThis situation would be perfect for JU/LH code share in the route in ideal world. JU has lower cost structure and would feed LH in MUC perfectly out of region. But...
In that case JU would not be different than OU.
DeleteFeeding LH for peanuts.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Do some people even understand what feeding actually means? JU and LH have no codeahare or interline. JU has over 100 destinations in its network and flies to 10 destinations in Germany. How would it feed Lufthansa?
DeleteFeeding is when you have interline, codeshare, a deeply integrated relationship, same alliance, your entire network dependant on FRA and MUC and little else to offer in terms of network.
People not knowing what the word actually means just throwing it around.
@ anon 10:26
DeleteJU is not forced to do c/s at all. I thin LH will first approach JU sooner or later and then JU has strong cards in it's hand. LH cannot match JU's cost structure on the route. But ofc everything depends on how soon and how big and with what equipment will LH return to MUC-BEG.
Some comments here are really expert-level:
ReplyDelete- It's not that they could not care less about JU launching BEG-MUC, but the two airlines play a different game. LH cares about high-yelled customers, Gold and Senator members of M&M, people who connect in MUC and will not buy tickets in two separate airlines to fly MUC-BEG.
- the real competition is the airlines that are also connecting e.g. LJU with MAN or TIV with VRN. Not the connection BEG-MUC.
- Ex-Yu isn't the most important market for them. They cut also for instance flights to some of the most important (and richest) cities in Poland. More important market for them.
Utter nonsence.
DeleteHigh-yield or transfer passengers were not the only one flying BEG-MUC (especially not Gold and Senator memebers) but there was significant and predominant number of P2P passengers who belong mostly to diaspora and we know quite well that diaspora is quite sensitive when it comes to airline ticket price.
So, on BEG-MUC route LH will surely feel the presence of JU and pay the price for the mess they created.
Having almost 21 weekly flights from BEG during the summer certainly means that BEG was quite significant destination in this part of Europe. The fact that they cut left and right just shows the level of chaos they created and they will surely be paying for it.
And they should.
I love it when people comment on others' expertise and then promptly proceed to embarrass themselves.
DeleteFirst of all, BEG has one of the lowest percentages of *G and SEN members among all LH destinations, alongside SOF, OTP and a few other regional capitals.
Secondly, LH has routinely been the cheapest option for connections from BEG to many Western European airports, including CDG, MAD, LIS etc, often flying pax for 30-40% less than direct flights to these destinations by JU.
Thirdly, no one ever said that people would "buy separate tickets" to fly first to MUC on LH and then onwards to BEG on JU, but that JU would capture a significant chunk of the P2P market, as well as some of the MUC-outbound traffic.
anon 13:41
Delete+1000
@13:41 What's your source for claim that BEG has one of the lowest percentages of *G and SEN members among all LH destinations?
DeleteJU reacted quickly and will, no doubt, do well on MUC route, both with p2p and transfer pax.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt.
DeleteDespite some "experts".
In order to accomodate all rebooked passengers ex MUC LH overbooked now many FRA-BEG flights! It's a complete mess......
ReplyDeleteYes, you are fully right.
DeleteCroatia Airlines has about 5 brand new shiny solutions
ReplyDeleteFlew from ZAG yesterday 3 pm. Two bright and shiny out of five parked. One on the apron. The other one in front of the hangar with engine cover opened. Počelo je Počelo?
Deletewhy not use Air Dolomiti for that gap?
ReplyDeleteDoes Air Dolomiti have 20+ spare aircraft?
DeleteThis is turning into a much bigger issue for Lufthansa than initially expected. If Ljubljana only resumes in June with reduced frequencies, it will hurt connectivity badly.
ReplyDeletehow so? you have the same transfer options at ZRH or FRA
DeleteSeasonal routes are always first to suffer when capacity is tight.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else notice the JU ATR in the background? :D
ReplyDeleteYes it's BEG I believe
DeleteUsing E195-E2s from Helvetic is actually a smart temporary fix. Those aircraft are a much better passenger experience than the CRJs they replace.
ReplyDeleteThe real question is whether Lufthansa is quietly using this as an excuse to exit weaker markets
ReplyDeleteHow dare you say RJK is weaker market? 🤣🤣🤣
DeleteI imagine Munich will lose some of its connectivity advantage if these reductions are extended
ReplyDeleteWouldn’t be shocked if Air Serbia adds even more Munich
ReplyDelete