Company Watch - Lufthansa Group.

Dniproavia accused Lufthansa of influencing German aviation authorities to get the Ukrainian carrier's route authority to serve Frankfurt and Berlin cancelled in violation of a 2005 open skies agreement between the countries. According to an "open letter" from Dniproavia to the Dept. of Aviation of the Federal Republic of Germany and shareholders of Lufthansa Airlines, the German LBA, "on Lufthansa's advice," on March 8 prohibited the airline from flying to Germany and cancelled its flights to Berlin and Frankfurt. Dniproavia alleged LH's goal is to monopolize the markets. In the letter, it claimed that Lufthansa "used the same method" to force another Ukrainian airline, Donbassaero, off its established routes. Apr 24, 2006

Fifty years is a long time. In April 1956 Lufthansa introduced services to Dusseldorf and on to Hamburg, from Manchester. Ringway, as it was then called, was but a stop on a Lockheed L-1049 G Super Constellation service that started at Chicago, went on to Montreal, and then Shannon. The first service from Germany saw Bert Trautmann, a former prisoner of war, cutting the ribbon just days before his heroic performance for City in the FA Cup Final where he played in the latter part of the match with a broken neck. Lufthansa's summer timetable for 2006 offers Manchester passengers a choice of 85 flights a week (28 to Frankfurt, 21 to Munich, 24 to Dusseldorf and 12 to Hamburg), with onward connections to 187 destinations in 79 countries in the Lufthansa network. Our photo shows cabin attendant Anna Schwertfeger, in the Lufthansa uniform of the 1950's, celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the services at Manchester Airport with (l -r) Tim McDermott (Manchester Airport Director of Aviation Development), Flight Captain Gerrit Adam, Dr Karsten Benz (Lufthansa Vice President Sales & Services Europe) and Dieter Grotepass (Lufthansa General Manager UK & Ireland).http://www.lufthansa.com Apr 30, 2006

Lufthansa joined the host of airlines raising their fuel surcharges, announcing yesterday that surcharges on long-haul flights will increase to [euro]62 ($76.70) from [euro]52 effective May 5. Surcharge on German and intra-European routes will remain at [euro]12 per segment. Apr 26, 2006

Lufthansa Technik launched Total Material Operations support service offering integrated supply of components, spare parts and consumables for airline networks. As part of TMO, LHT said it is establishing "central component and supplies depots at the main bases of its customers and subsequently at all the airline's stations throughout its network." For North American customers, "this would support a coast-to-coast operation where LHT employees from California to New York will supply all maintenance stations throughout the network with LRUs," including cabin interior furnishings and fittings as well as large components such as thrust reversers. Apr 28, 2006

Swiss International Air Lines boosted its fuel surcharge on long-haul flights to CHF106 ($83.29) in each direction from CHF93. European and domestic services will see a fuel surcharge of CHF32 each way. The revised surcharges will be levied on all tickets issued in Switzerland from April 25. Swiss last increased its fuel surcharges in September 2005. Apr 24, 2006