AVIATION - LuftHansa quits Manila

TTGasia.com, Jan 11 - 17, 2008

Lufthansa’s imminent departure from the Philippines puts additional strain on an already meagre Europe-Philippine seat capacity – and while impact on business should be minimal – raises concerns on air fares, perception and government policies. Lufthansa is discontinuing its daily Frankfurt-Manila service via Guangzhou on March 30. General manager Philippines, Guam and Micronesia, Mr Christopher Zimmer, told TTG Asia pulling out after 26 years was a purely commercial decision. He said: “We have major expansion plans in China and India but capacity at Lufthansa remains the same. We need aircraft to service new routes. KLM is now the only airline plying the Europe-Philippine route with daily non-stop Amsterdam-Manila flights. However, Asian and Middle Eastern carriers also get a substantial share of the Europe-Philippine traffic.

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