Lufthansa To Hike Fares, Cut Fuel Fees Next Week
Lufthansa confirmed today that it will raise fares in Germany and an unspecified number of other markets on June 22. The airline also will lower its fuel surcharges on the same date, but a spokesperson said there is no connection between the two sets of adjustments, and indeed the surcharge reductions are much more modest than the fare increases.
"The price increases are because of investments we have made to upgrade products for our customers," the spokesperson said. These include a new first class, improvements to economy class and the introduction of the Airbus A380 to the Lufthansa fleet last month.
The airline will increase fares in many, but not all, markets. In Germany, first-class fares will rise by €150 per return ticket and business-class fares by €100, while economy fares will rise by €30. On short-haul, business class fares are going up by €20 on international flights and €10 on domestic flights, while economy fares will rise by €10 to €20, according to fare code. However, lead-in fares, used overwhelmingly by leisure passengers, are not changing.
Fuel surcharges are reducing by €3 per sector to North Africa, Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and €5 to destinations farther afield. The fuel surcharge to North America, for example, will fall to €82 one-way.
Lufthansa also may have been emboldened to raise fares after reporting a good set of passenger figures for May last week. Revenue passenger kilometers jumped 9.8 percent and load factor rose 5.7 percent to 80.0 percent. The best RPK performances were in Europe, up 13.2 percent, and Middle East/Africa, up 16.2 percent.