Lufthansa in Spring 2016 is cancelling service on Frankfurt – Kuala Lumpur route, as the airline closed reservation for travel on/after 01MAR16. This route is currently served 5 times a week with 3-class 279-seater Airbus A340-300 aircraft, however this will be reduced to 3 weekly from 26DEC15 to 29FEB16.
LH782 FRA2210 – 1725+1KUL 343 246
LH783 KUL2315 – 0545+1FRA 343 357
Lufthansa resumed this route in late-March 2014.
Airline Route
Lufthansa becomes A320NEO launch customer
According to Aviation Week Network (AWN). Airbus will swap the deliveries of its A320neo aircraft from launch customer Qatar Airways to Lufthansa, thus the German carrier becoming the first airline to take delivery of the type.
The industry sources quoted in the AWN report cited that the change was due to operational constraints in place for the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engine, pending some hardware and software changes due to be implemented “within a matter of weeks.” The possibility of “a slight delay” due to engine issues began to circulate back in June 2015 as reported by Jon Ostrower and The Wall Street Journal.
Just in a press conference held today in New York, Qatar Airways GCEO Mr. Akbar Al Baker remained confident that he expects a “Christmas miracle” and “that Airbus will deliver the A320neo before the end of the year” but added that if there are delays Pratt & Whitney would be on the hook. Nevertheless, the AWN report indicates that Qatar was reluctant to take delivery of the A320neo under such operational limitations “and will not do so until the restrictions are lifted.”
An Airbus spokesperson confirmed to AirwaysNews that “we are in talks with our customers about the first deliveries of their aircraft though it is their privilege to announce the delivery date. We do confirm our plan to start the neo delivery stream this year.”
During the Dubai Air Show in November 2011, Qatar Airways placed orders (firm and options) for 80 of Airbus’ new A320neos. Interestingly, Qatar Airways was the first airline in the world to operate every family of Airbus’ modern airliner portfolio, comprising the A320, A330, A340, A350 and A380. These delays aren’t without precedent. The carrier was the launch customer of the Airbus A350 XWB one year ago also after a week-long delay upon request of Mr. Al Baker due to cabin finishing issues.
And during his association with Cargolux Airlines, Mr. Al Baker also opted to postpone the delivery of the first Boeing 747-8 Freighter days before the expected handover. The airline attributed the decision to “unresolved contractual issues” with Boeing.
The report states that Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr confirmed that the airline and Airbus are negotiating the delivery scheduled to be on December 22. However, given the regulatory issues to clear and a financial compensation requested by Lufthansa, these negotiations might not get to fruition.
If Lufthansa and Airbus agree on the delivery of the A320neo, the carrier would start serving the Frankfurt – Hamburg route on January 6, and the A320neo delivery order would place Qatar Airways as the second A320neo operator, followed by Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo.
At this point, however nothing is cast in stone or aluminum.
Airways News
Passenger on Lufthansa flight tries to open door in-flight
A passenger on a Lufthansa flight on its way from Frankfurt to Belgrade on Sunday was detained after he threatened to open the plane door and bring down the aircraft.
Banging on a cockpit door, the man reportedly threated to down the Lufthansa plane as it was flying over Austria. Though he wouldn’t actually have been able to open the doors, he was restrained by the crew and some passengers, Lufthansa said.
“A passenger got up and tried to do something at the door, but was stopped by crew members and other passengers,” said Lufthansa spokesman Andreas Bartels.
Flight 1406 eventually landed in Belgrade, its planned destination, where the troublemaker was handed over to local police and arrested. The crew never reported the emergency situation to flight control.
The man, who turned out to be an American citizen of Jordanian descent, is currently being interrogated by the police and will spend 48 hours in detention before facing trial, according to Serbia’s public prosecutor, as reported by the Blic daily.
Milan Djukic, a Serbian handball team player who was on the same plane, said the man had looked suspicious even before they boarded the plane.
“About halfway into the flight he tried to open a plane door, but the cabin crew stopped him,” Djukic told Blic.
“It was a normal door, which of course cannot be opened in-flight… it was not the cockpit door,” Bartels also said as quoted by AFP.
Assistant coach Milan Mirkovic and handball player Aleksej Rastvorcev calmed the man down, while other passengers had no idea what was going on, he said, adding that two players kept an eye on the rowdy, who was in business class, for the rest of the flight.
RT News