- Dublin-Munich will be twice daily from March
- Competing against Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Transavia
Lufthansa is to double its services on the Dublin to Munich route from next March, the airline announced at a briefing in the capital.
The move will see the German airline operating twice a day – except on Tuesdays – to its Bavarian hub.
Andreas Koster, the new senior director for Ireland, Britain and Iceland briefed journalists in Dublin: “We started in 2008 three times a week, and now we’ve more than quadrupled that to 13 times a week. We’ve seen good growth out of Ireland, and 80pc of the business is inbound, with customers holidaying on the island or on business.”
Mr Koster said there is a significant amount of transfer traffic through Germany in the Irish market. Prominent transfer destinations include Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo in the Far East, and Moscow, Sofia and Belgrade in Eastern Europe.
The airline is rolling out new-generation wifi across its European market from next month, but the airlines doesn’t yet have a pricing strategy – although it will be charging for inflight online access. It also couldn’t guarantee wifi onboard flights out of Ireland next year, saying the rollout of wifi could take one to two years.
But Mr Koster wouldn’t be drawn on the threat from Ryanair when it operates out of Germany’s biggest hub, Frankfurt. “I don’t think that we should comment on the actions of Ryanair in the German market. We never comment on the moves of competitors but we have competition from all sides and are used to it.”
He added that the Lufthansa Group is confident that its low-cost airline, Eurowings, can thrive in the competitive European sector. “Our answer to low cost is Eurowings and they are the ones who will compete directly with Ryanair and EasyJet,” he said.
On complaints by Irish travel agents over fees levied on the GDS sector, he said “we need a diverse distribution landscape” across booking channels.
Regarding the €16 fee applied, he said “GDSs provide a good service – but at a cost. The GDS fee didn’t impact on business in any way – but we saw shifts in booking channels.”
Acknowledging concern among the trade over the fee, he added: “We didn’t expect them to love us and hug us for that.”
Mr Koster said the new Swiss service to Zurich ex Cork and Lufthansa route from Shannon to Frankfurt re-emphasised the group’s commitment to the Irish market.
