Deutsche Lufthansa AG (LHA) will resume flights from London’s Gatwick airport after a two-decade absence as the German carrier seeks to feed its expanding Frankfurt hub.
Lufthansa will offer a twice-daily service from Gatwick beginning Oct. 30, expanding its operations between the U.K. capital and Frankfurt to 111 flights a week, including trips to London City airport and its main British base at Heathrow.
Europe’s second-biggest airline will commence the flights nine days after Frankfurt airport opens a fourth runway, lifting capacity to 700,000 aircraft movements a year by 2020, 236,000 more than took place in 2010, according to owner Fraport AG.
“Available capacity at Frankfurt will increase and Gatwick offers another catchment area in the southeast U.K.,” London- based Lufthansa spokeswoman Gudrun Gorner said. “Heathrow is very much up to capacity and it’s not easy to get slots there.”
Frankfurt airport last year handled 53 million customers, compared with 66 million at Heathrow and 31 million at Gatwick. Gatwick’s passenger count rose 5.2 percent last month to 3.2 million, according to a statement today. Heathrow, where the runways are operating at 99 percent of capacity, lured 6.1 million, a 6.3 percent increase, as carriers used bigger planes.
By: cockerhoop - 13th July 2011 at 08:22
isn’t more to do with cost? the trip i took 7 years ago was an expedia trip, and of course the selection i made was cheapest first
it was a Toronto long weekend break Thur to Mon came in at about £800 for flights and hotel from Man via Frankfurt, other options were with KLM,but the change overs were not as easy as Lufthansa.
By: steve wilson - 13th July 2011 at 06:41
Its a sad fact of the way in which Airport Expansion is being handled in the UK that Lufthansa is able to take pax from London to connect through FRA to the rest of the world. IF something isnt done to expand runway capacity in London we will continue to loose pax to big European Hubs.
Steve
By: cockerhoop - 12th July 2011 at 08:01
Its to be hoped they have enough parking places for planes at Frankfurt, in my 1 trip there in 2004 we spent 20 mins lurking behind a hangar waiting for a parking slot to free up, and then when boarding the shuttle to Manchester, we were bused out to a remote stand, but hey we did get a substitute A300 for the normal A320 which was a bonus!!!!!!
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July 11, 2011 at 11:01 pm