Lufthansa becomes Fanhansa for Fifa World Cup

A Total of eight aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet will swap their well-known lettering for the new ‘Fanhansa’ logo. It will be the first time that Lufthansa has changed, for a certain time period, its name on the fuselage of some its aircraft since commencing operations almost 60 years ago.

The first Fanhansa Airbus took off from Munich to Hamburg and London in mid-May this year. 'Over the coming days, we will be creating new travel experiences with a number of different promotions – there is no doubt that we will be flying the happiest fans to Brazil with Fanhansa, offering the best World Cup atmosphere and pure football fever,' says Alexander Schlaubitz, head of marketing at Lufthansa Passenger Airlines. 'It will make Lufthansa the official carrier of all football fans.' During the many surprise promotions that will be happening on board Lufthansa’s scheduled flights and at check-in counters and gates in German airports, participants will be able to qualify immediately for a ticket to Brazil on board a Fanhansa plane.

BEST EUROPEAN AIRLINE

Lufthansa clinched the ‘Best European Airline serving the Middle East’ title during the gala ceremony of the Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2014 on the eve of the Arabian Travel Market 2014 in Dubai.

'We are proud having a long history of operations in the Middle East since our first flight landed here in 1960,' says Karsten Zang, general manager UAE and director Gulf and Pakistan.

'We have set ourselves a number of objectives for 2014; it will be Lufthansa’s biggest service initiative in recent years. As well as installing the latest cabins in all classes of our aircraft, which is already proceeding apace, we will also be demonstrating to an even greater degree our qualities as a dedicated host with a keen understanding of service and hospitality.'

RAMADAN KAREEM

One addition to the service portfolio has been the service of Ramadan meals on board. Lufthansa has expanded routes serving Ramadan meals for Economy Class, effective June 28 to July 27, 2014 on select routes in the GCC and Iran.

Passengers on Economy Class travelling from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia’s cities of Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh as well as Tehran, Iran to Frankfurt and from Riyadh to Munich will benefit from hot halal meals during the night-time flight and light breakfast before sunrise to help them fill their dietary needs and prepare them for the day’s fasting.

BULLISH ON MIDDLE EAST

Lufthansa gave a positive outlook on the 2014/2015 travel season for its business in the Middle East at this year’s Arabian Travel Market. In 2013, more than 1.7 million guests were welcomed on board the group members Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines on the route network to and from the Middle East. This reflects a growth of more than 5 per cent compared to the previous year. All in all, the Lufthansa Group offered flights to more than 104 million passengers in 2013.

The largest growth has been generated in the premium segment, especially in First and Business Class. In both compartments, Lufthansa has recently introduced new seats and services. In one of largest retrofit programmes in the industry, more than 7,000 Business Class seats are being installed on over 100 long-haul aircraft and therefore increasing the new Business Class availability to 100 per cent by summer 2015. The retrofit on First Class has been nearly concluded.

'Lufthansa has committed itself to invest €1 million ($1.37 million) every day until 2015 in better ground and on-board services,' reveals Karsten Zang, Lufthansa’s general manager UAE and director Gulf and Pakistan. 'New seats in all classes, individual inflight entertainment in Economy Class, innovative First Class and Business Class as well as brand new lounges, will help us define new industry standards and give us advantages over other carriers which fly different products on their route network.'

ON SALE NOW

After the presentation of the new Premium Economy Class at this year’s ITB in Berlin, the new travel class can now be booked on flights flown by Boeing 747-8s. From December 10, the Premium Economy Class will have guaranteed availability on all flights served by the new jumbo. The destinations that can now be booked include the routes from Frankfurt to and from Buenos Aires, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mexico City, São Paulo, Seoul, Beijing and Washington, D.C.

From late January 2015, the first retrofitted aircraft of the type A340-600 are scheduled to take off from Munich for Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo; from late April the A380-800 is planned to then fly from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, New York, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore. The Middle East routes are also slated to receive the new Premium Economy in 2015.

To mark the start of sales, the US cities of Chicago and Washington, D.C. are available from Dh8,445 ($2,300), and the longest route in the Lufthansa network, Buenos Aires, is available from Dh10,755 ($2,925).

These prices are now available for sale and valid for travel from December 2014 onwards. Passengers from Dubai and Abu Dhabi will get to experience the Premium Economy on their connecting flights from Frankfurt to above mentioned routes served by the new jumbo.