On a lighter note: Pillow fight aboard a Lufthansa aircraft

by B. N. Sullivan

This video was posted to YouTube in June with the tongue-in-cheek title, "The endless dispute between the French and the Germans." The blurb that was posted beneath the video explains:

LH687 from Tel-Aviv to Frankfurt. Economy class is occupied with a few dozens of French tourists. Suddenly they start a 'pillow war' inside the cabin.

Lufthansa flights attendant seems to take active part in the war.

Clearly, this was a good-natured "war" -- and everyone applauded at the end!



If the video does not play or display properly above, click here to view it on YouTube.

Hat tips to YouTube user voerman19, who posted the video, and to Twitter user @Aife_Earthstone, who told me about it.

Lufthansa MD-11 freighter accident at Riyadh

by B. N. Sullivan

A Lufthansa Cargo MD-11 freighter (registration D-ALCQ) crashed while landing at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the morning of July 27, 2010.  Operating as Lufthansa Cargo Flt LH 8460, the aircraft was arriving at Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport (RUH) from Frankfurt, Germany (FRA).  The aircraft left the runway after touchdown, broke apart, and burst into flames.  The two crew members on board survived the accident.

According to a statement on the Lufthansa Cargo website, the accident occurred at 11:38 AM local time.  The 39 year-old captain and 29 year-old first officer evacuated the aircraft using the emergency slide.  They were hospitalized after the accident.

Lufthansa reported that the accident aircraft, which was carrying 80 tonnes of cargo, was flying from Frankfurt to Hong Kong, and was scheduled for en route stopovers in Riyadh and Sharja.  The aircraft had undergone a C-Check (comprehensive maintenance check) on June 22, 2009, and an A-Check immediately prior to the Frankfurt to Riyadh.  The accident aircraft had logged 10,073 take-offs and around 73,200 flying hours, according to the company.

Some news reports about the accident mentioned that the crew  had received a fire indication and declared an emergency while on approach, but this has not been officially confirmed by either the company or the Saudi aviation officials.

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) is in charge of the investigation.  Experts from Lufthansa Cargo, and a team from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have been dispatched to Riyadh to assist the Saudi GACA with the investigation.

Lufthansa pilot strike slated for next week

by B. N. Sullivan

The pilots at German flag carrier Lufthansa have announced plans to strike after contract talks between the airline's management and the pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), broke down. The pilots intend to strike for four days, beginning Monday, February 22, 2010. VC stated earlier this week that more than 90 per cent of the union membership had voted in favor of striking.

Lufthansa pilots would like a pay raise, however the main topic of contention in the contract negotiations has to do with job security. In particular, the Lufthansa pilots want well-defined scope clauses in their contract, assuring that the routes they fly are not transferred to Lufthansa's recently acquired subsidiaries, such as Lufthansa Italia and Austrian Airlines, where pilot pay is much lower.

Similar issues have arisen repeatedly in the United States as pilots at mainline legacy carriers see more an more of their work outsourced to smaller regional carriers, which pay their pilots significantly less. It is the view of the pilots that this practice not only threatens their own job security, but ultimately lowers the standard for pilot wages and working conditions across the board.

According to an article about the intended strike on the German news Web site Spiegel.de, the industrial action will affect around 4,500 pilots at Lufthansa, its freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo, and budget airline Germanwings, which is wholly owned by Lufthansa.

UPDATE February 22, 2010: The Lufthansa pilots have begun their strike, as announced. Lufthansa management is seeking help from the German courts to halt the strike, which is said to be the largest in German aviation history.

Spiegel.de reports:

The airline's management applied for a court injunction on Monday to try to force the pilots to return to work. A spokeswoman for the airline said the strike was having a disproportionate impact and that the management had a responsibility to prevent damage to the firm, its staff and its shareholders.

The Frankfurt labour court will consider Lufthansa's request at a hearing on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. CET (4.30 p.m. GMT). Lufthansa is claiming that the strike is in breach of rules governing labor relations, the court said.

UPDATE #2: BBC News is reporting that the Lufthansa pilots have now suspended their strike and have agreed to resume negotiations with the airline's management. There will be "no further action until at least March 9."

Lufthansa acquiring Austrian Airlines, despite union opposition

It's official: Lufthansa is acquiring Austrian Airlines. The Austrian government, which is the major stakeholder in Austrian Airlines, officially approved the sale today. Peter Michaelis, CEO of the Austrian state holding company ÖIAG, and Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber (pictured at right) signed a contract which transferred ÖIAG's 41.6% stake in Austrian to Lufthansa for EUR 366,268.75. Lufthansa also intends to acquire all the remaining shares of Austrian Airlines. The total price is expected to reach about EUR 377, according to news reports.

A statement to the press about the deal says that Austrian Airlines will be managed as a profit center in the Lufthansa Group, but will remain a "broadly independent" airline with its head office in Austria, its own brand, fleet and crew.

Mr. Mayrhuber said there are no plans at present to cut jobs at Austrian, however it should be noted that union groups at Austrian opposed this deal. Agence France-Presse reported that the labor representatives on ÖIAG's supervisory board all voted against approving the acquisition.

"The circumstances surrounding the sale process, the offer that Lufthansa has put on the table, and the many open questions about it are the main reasons why the labour representatives on the board voted against the sale," union representative Leopold Abraham told AFP.

Terms of the deal still must be approved by the European Commission.

[Photo Source]

Video: Lufthansa Airbus A320 in dramatic crosswind landing attempt

You may have seen this video, or stills captured from it, on a news broadcast. Shot by an amateur at Hamburg, Germany, the video shows a dramatic landing attempt on Fuhlsbuettel Airport's Runway 23 in strong and gusty crosswinds. (Various news reports about the incident mentioned gusts with windspeeds of up to approximately 150 mph.)

At one point the tip of the left wing of the Lufthansa Airlines A320 briefly touches the ground, just before the crew initiates a go-around. According to various news reports, the aircraft later landed safely, but minus one winglet. A story about the incident on CNN.com quoted a Lufhthansa spokesman who said that the plane "is already back in service."

The incident happened on Saturday (March 1, 2008) as the aircraft was arriving on a scheduled flight from Munich with more than 130 people on board. The weather conditions were caused by a powerful winter storm that swept across Europe over the past weekend. The weather disrupted air traffic at Hamburg, and several other locations, causing many flight delays, and several diversions.



(If the video does not display or play properly above, you can view it here on LiveLeak.com.)

Lufthansa's economy 'Sleepers Class' idea for long-haul routes

Get a load of this: German flag carrier Lufthansa is exploring the idea of an all-sleeper configuration for economy-class cabins on long-haul flights, according to an article on FlightGlobal.com. The airline reportedly has sent an email survey to some customers asking their opinion about this concept:

The airline has generated a conceptual image of the proposed ‘Sleepers Class’ cabin, showing a possible arrangement featuring fully lie-flat bunks stacked three-high in a herringbone layout on either side of the cabin, with additional berths in a wide central aisle.

Star Alliance member Lufthansa is considering the sleeper-cabin for specific intercontinental services – possibly overnight flights, such as those to Johannesburg, Sao Paulo and Shanghai – although the carrier says that it has not progressed to the stage of examining potential specific routes.

Under the scheme a passenger would opt to book a bed for the flight rather than a regular economy-class seat. It is unclear whether the beds would convert from a seating layout.

A spokeswoman for Lufthansa confirms that the airline is formally looking into the idea, and running a customer survey, although she adds: “Of course there’s no final decision yet. There are, as such, no certain plans whether or not to realise an idea like this.”

Looks sorta like an airborne bunkhouse or hostel to me. Would passengers like to be stowed on multiple layers like that? It might add a whole new dimension to all the jokes about pax as 'SLF' (Self-Loading Freight).

I have to admit that one of the first thoughts that popped into my head when I saw the photo was what the implications would be for an emergency evacuation. Other safety-related questions come to mind as well. Do the berths convert to upright seats for takeoff and landing? And what if a passenger fell from an upper berth during turbulence?

What do you think?

[Photo Source]

Lufthansa cabin crew to get pay increase

Bloomberg News is reporting that Lufthansa has agreed to include 15,000 flight attendants in a pay raise package. The announcement comes from Lufthansa employee union Ver.di:

The flight attendants will receive a 3.4 percent increase, which the airline had already agreed to apply to ground personnel, from July 1, Ver.di said in a faxed statement. Lufthansa spokeswoman Stefanie Stotz said negotiations are ongoing and declined to comment further when contacted by Bloomberg News.

Ver.di said Feb. 17 the 3.4 percent pay-raise agreement it negotiated for 27,000 ground-crew workers also applied to 15,000 flight attendants it represents. Lufthansa argued that cabin crews are already covered by a May 2005 contract with the UFO flight attendants' union providing raises of at least 2.5 percent as of January 2007 and lasting through December 2008.

Recent disagreements between Lufthansa and its cabin crew have been contentious, recently causing several disruptions in flight service as cabin crews in Berlin stopped work to demand higher wages.

[Photo Source]

Airbus A380 arrives in the U.S.

It's here. The world's newest and largest airliner, the Airbus A380, touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York at 12:10 EDT today. An Washington Post report about the historic event  says that as the plane taxied, a pilot waved an American flag.

Operating as Lufthansa Flight 8940, the first flight from Frankfurt to New York is a part of Lufthansa's route proving program for the mega-jumbo aircraft. Moments after the landing at JFK, another A380 landed at Los Angeles.

The first U.S. flights are a chance for the European plane builder Airbus and German airline Lufthansa AG to show off the jewel of Airbus' offerings to potential American buyers and to the airports they hope to turn into flight bases for the jet. The 239-foot-long A380 can seat as many as 550 passengers, hold 81,890 gallons of fuel, cruise at 560 mph and fly some 8,000 nautical miles.

Lufthansa Flight 8940 is meant to be a statement by Airbus that it can accommodate vast numbers of travelers comfortably and efficiently. [Washington Post]

For more details, visit the special Airbus website about the A380 Route Proving program. The site has information about the aircraft, the proving routes, and the crew, as well as A380 screensaver and wallpaper downloads for your computer. You might also be interested to have a look at Touch-down A380 USA, a blog by Lufthansa employees about the new aircraft's first visit to the United States.

Here's a link to a Wall Street Journal video about the Airbus A380.

[Photo Source]

Lufthansa to hire 1200 cabin crew in 2007

German airline Lufthansa is planning to expand its workforce this year. The airline is set to recruit 3,000 new workers in 2007, including 1,200 flight attendants.

According to the Lufthansa website, flight attendant candidates currently are being sought for the airline's Frankfurt/Munich service area, to fly continental and intercontinental routes. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, and fluent in both German and English.

For more information, and to apply online, visit the Lufthansa Careers web page.

Air cargo price-fixing in the EU?

The International Herald Tribune reports on an air cargo price-fixing probe by European Union (EU) investigators who raided the offices of several EU-based carriers, including British Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM Group, among others.

British Airways and Lufthansa said they were assisting with the inquiry. U.S. and European officials requested information on "cartel activity" involving British Airways and a number of other airlines and cargo operators, British Airways said in a statement to the Regulatory News Service.

Lufthansa said that its cargo unit was cooperating with the investigation and that it would give no further information on the matter.

A spokeswoman for Air France, Brigitte Barrand, said, "Air France confirms that it, like other freight transporters in Europe, is a subject of the European Commission's investigation and it will bring to the inquiries all the cooperation that's sought."

Cargolux Airlines International, a Luxembourg-based freight carrier, is also being investigated by the commission, said a spokesman for the company, Patrick Jeanne.

A statement from the European Commission said there was reason to believe that the companies concerned might have violated EU cartel rules.

Under EU law, the commission can fine companies accused of operating a cartel as much as 10 percent of their annual sales. It typically opts for about 2 percent to 3 percent of sales.

The European Commission gave no expected date for the completion of its investigation.