Lufthansa Group, via its official website, announced (15-Nov-2023) several lounges at Frankfurt Airport will be undergoing renovation work between Nov-2023 and Feb-2024. Each lounge will be closed for approximately one month at a time while work is carried out. The overview of all affected lounges is as follows:
Lufthansa Group, via its official website, announced (15-Nov-2023) its 'Senator Lounge' in Düsseldorf Airport will be temporarily closed due to renovation work from 20-Nov-2023. The group will welcome guests in the business lounge, located in Terminal A near gate A50, until the reopening on 02-Jan-2024.
Condor Flugdienst and Emirates Airline activated (14-Nov-2023) their reciprocal interline agreement, expanding connectivity for customers to 70 routes operated by both airlines across Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East. The two carriers also signed a frequent flyer programme agreement, enabling Emirates Skywards members to earn and redeem miles on all Condor operated flights. Effective immediately, Emirates' passengers will receive access to European and Caribbean destinations operated by Condor including 24 regional points via Frankfurt, 12 via Dusseldorf, nine via Hamburg and 12 via Munich. The agreement will also provide Condor's customers access to Emirates operated services between Frankfurt and Dubai, as well as beyond Dubai to 12 points across Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East including Auckland, Bangkok, Male, Muscat and Mauritius. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - German]
WestJet cancelled plans to resume seasonal daily Calgary-London Gatwick service from Apr-2024, as per a 13-Nov-2023 GDS inventory and timetable display.
Seabury Capital Group announced (08-Nov-2023) it served as restructuring advisor to SAS, in the process of reaching an investment agreement with the winning bidder consortium in the carrier's exit financing solicitation process. As previously reported by CAPA, the winning bidder consisted of Castlelake, Air France-KLM and Lind Invest, together with the Danish state. [more - original PR]
Iberia announced (08-Nov-2023) it is moving from check-in zone A/B to zone H at Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport, effective 09-Nov-2023. Customers will have six counters for economy class and two for business class. Additionally, business class customers and holders of the Iberia Plus Gold, Platinum and Infinita cards will benefit from better access to the fast track document control area in Zone J and the 'Emerald' and 'Galleries' VIP rooms. [more - original PR]
South African Airways, via its official Facebook and Twitter accounts, announced (07-Nov-2023) it commenced twice weekly Johannesburg-São Paulo service on 06-Nov-2023. As previously reported by CAPA, the airline commenced twice weekly Cape Town-São Paulo service on 31-Oct-2023.
Lufthansa announced (08-Nov-2023) it will offer unlimited free messaging on its short and medium haul flights from mid Jan-2024. The service will be available to passengers on A320 family aircraft equipped with WiFi. In addition, the carrier will reduce the tariff for all other onboard internet packages by almost 50% from the same date. The prerequisite for using the new free service is logging into FlyNet with a Miles & More service card number, or with an email address registered with the Lufthansa Group Travel ID. A new login or registration is also possible during the flight. [more - original PR]
PLAY announced (07-Nov-2023) it has started selling its new 'Space seat' product. As previously reported by CAPA, the Space seats offer increased legroom, seated by a window or aisle, with a side table placed in the middle seat. The product will reduce the availability of seats in the A321neo from 214 seats to 200 seats, enabling the carrier to reduce costs as fewer crew members will be needed to service passengers. PLAY added "this will also increase side income and it will be easy to increase the supply again when the demand increases again after the winter". [more - original PR]
TravelBank announced (07-Nov-2023) it now has Lufthansa Group's NDC booking features live in its platform. TravelBank users will be able to avoid the distribution cost charge (DCC), as well as access NDC features from Lufthansa Group, including being able to search, book, cancel, and modify flights. Within the TravelBank app, travellers can also select and purchase premium seats. Lufthansa Group head of digital retailing Johannes Walter commented: "Partnering with TravelBank allows even more corporate customers and their travellers to access our broad range of NDC exclusive offerings". [more - original PR]