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Lufthansa is the latest international airline said to be reconsidering its current operations to China.
A report published by Reuters has suggested that the German carrier could be about to axe its direct flights between Frankfurt and Beijing. Increasing competition from Chinese-based carriers and rising operating costs are said to be the leading considerations that the airline is grappling with as it mulls the future of the route.
Currently, the German airline offers five weekly flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Beijing (PEK) using Airbus A340-300 widebodies. This service has been operated by both Airbus A380s and Boeing 747-8is in the past, but the drop in demand has seen it being downgraded to the carrier’s 279-seat A340 fleet.
According to sources at the airline, any decision to suspend the route will be taken in October 2024, once September traffic figures become available. However, despite the future looking uncertain for this route, it is thought that the company is likely to continue operating its daily service between Munich (MUC) and Beijing. The decision as to whether Lufthansa drops the route is thought to be largely driven by the need for European carriers to take more divergent routes between European cities and those in China. The possibility of the German flag carrier dropping flights between Frankfurt and Beijing comes as a flurry of other European airlines have been axing services to China in recent months. Virgin Atlantic has dropped its services to both Shanghai and Hong Kong, destinations that it served for more than 20 and 30 years, respectively. Meanwhile, British Airways announced that it would be canceling all future flights to Beijing from October 2024 and reducing its twice-daily services to Hong Kong (one of which was operated by an A380) to just a single Boeing 787-operated flight. Elsewhere, Qantas announced in May 2024 that it was ending flights between Sydney and Shanghai, while Royal Brunei will also cease flying to Beijing from October 2024. Notwithstanding these cuts, other carriers, particularly those in the Middle East, are increasing flights to China as they offer new possibilities to European travelers connecting over their conveniently located hubs. Dubai-based Emirates has fully restored its pre-pandemic capacity to China, while Kuwait Airways has also been increasing frequencies and Gulf Air started flights for the first time to two Chinese cities from Bahrain in May 2024. Source: OneTubeDaily, AEROTIME![]()
