Lufthansa to commence A380 service to Miami
Lufthansa is expected to announce plans tomorrow to commence daily A380 service to Miami from 10 June. Lufthansa currently operates daily Frankfurt-Miami service with B747-400 equipment configured with 16 First, 80 Business and 234 Economy seats (330 in total). The airline's A380s are configured with eight First, 98 Business and 420 Economy seats (526 in total - or a 59% increase in capacity over the B747-400 on that route).
Lufthansa's A380 service to Tokyo remain suspended. A notice on the Lufthansa website reads, "Because of the current situation in Japan, Lufthansa has temporarily suspended its A380 service to Tokyo until further notice".
The carrier has reportedly postponed A380 service resumption to Tokyo Narita until 09-Apr-2011, deploying the aircraft meanwhile to New York JFK.
Lufthansa notes on its website that New York JFK will be served with A380 equipment daily from 10-Apr-2011. This leaves the option for Lufthansa to suspend the Narita A380 suspension for longer.
The airline is scheduled to take delivery of four A380s in total in 2011, including two in Mar-2011. Lufthansa currently operates five A380s to Johannesburg (daily), New York (four times weekly) and Beijing. Daily A380 service to San Francisco will be added to the network on 10-May-2011.
Lufthansa has meanwhile reportedly secured traffic rights with the support of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development to operate daily A380 service to Beijing, effective 10-Apr-2011. Since 01-Sep-2010, Lufthansa has offered A380 flights on the Frankfurt-Beijing sector only on certain days each week (three frequencies per week).
Lufthansa has been keeping its next A380 destination under wraps. The carrier stated earlier this month, "A sixth destination, which has yet to be announced, will be included in the A380 schedule by the middle of the year." Miami is expected to be the big winner.
Lufthansa also operates six times weekly Dusseldorf-Miami service with A330 equipment and five times weekly Munich-Miami service with A340-300/A330-300 equipment, according to Innovata schedules.