LUFTHANSA’S NAIROBI FLIGHTS NOT AFFECTED BY ONGOING STRIKE
(Posted 11th November 2015)
While in Nairobi for the 40th Annual Congress of the Africa Travel Association did opportunity arise to closely monitor the Lufthansa services between Frankfurt and Nairobi, after the airline’s cabin crew chose to go on strike, affecting hundreds of flights within Germany, the EU and beyond.
It could be established that the Nairobi service were not affected by the action of the union, as a significant number of flights are during the current season operated on a Private Air Boeing B737-700NG BBJ aircraft. This is reassuring for the market in Kenya and the region, as Lufthansa only last month resumed flights to Kenya after an absence of some 18 years. Travel agents and travelers initially took issue with the airline when news broke that instead of serving the route with an Airbus A340 Lufthansa decided to substitute the aircraft with the smaller B737 Business Jet for he current season, although additional flights during the peak year end holiday period would be operated with the larger wide body Airbus A340 aircraft retrofitted with the latest seat products.
It can now also be revealed that Lufthansa was left with little choice over the use of the Private Air B737-700NG BBJ, an aircraft incidentally also used on some selected other Lufthansa routes, as a result of the pilot’s union giving the airline’s management grief. Entitlement demands from the Flugvereinigung Cockpit, the pilots union, had clearly had a negative impact on the airline’s plans to use A340’s for the route to Kenya, compelling them to use the alternate route of leasing Switzerland’s Private Air aircraft as the core aircraft, only operating additional flights with their own A340.
Gulf carriers recently approached ahead of the Dubai Airshow, to comment off the record on reasons why their business models proved to be such a success, among other reasons cited union problems for the American and European legacy carriers as one major factor why they made such an impact on the market, In fairness, another reason given were operating restrictions for key airports in Europe and parts of North America, where often night flight bans restricted the full use of airports by capping their capacity to only 75 percent of the available daily 24 hours. Meanwhile in the Gulf no such operating restrictions are imposed, utilising not just airports but more importantly their fleets to the fullest extent while their rivals often have to park their aircraft overnight to observe bans on night take offs and landings.
Lufthansa, now a major shareholder in Brussels Airlines, in a route swap with them exchanged the Nairobi route with the Belgian flag carrier for Accra / Ghana.
The news that the flights will not be affected by the ongoing strike action will no doubt be reassuring for travelers from and to Kenya.
