Lufthansa Cuts Minneapolis Flights, Transfers Route To Discover Airlines

I'm not happy about this development but having taken this flight, as someone who begrudgingly lives near MSP, and knowing others who have also taken it, I know the general comments have been that most passengers seems to be going on cruises. Heck, when I took the flight in September there were so many people going on Viking Cruises that they had a rep at the gate. The traffic seems to be largely leisure travelers. So, in that regard, the switch to 4Y is unlikely to be noticed by the majority of passengers and as far as LH Group is concerned they maintain their foot in the door at MSP.

At least we can redeem miles for 4Y through AC.

Ugh Philly got bumped back down to Discover too, earlier in the year. Not cool, LH!

It's hard to penetrate fortresses. I believe MSP was Delta's 2nd largest hub in 2023. MSP isn't that prime of a destination either given that over a third of its traffic is connecting. LH aren't really fully pulling out anyhow since it's just Discover operating the flight vs LH mainline.

That being said LH has been quite successful with their NA expansion otherwise. SEA's increasingly saturated market now has daily LH service to FRA and 3x weekly to MUC, which is quite impressive considering it's a major OW/pseudo-SkyTeam hub. RDU is also looking strong.

If LH could finally finish modernizing its cabins, I could actually get excited about their growth.

"it's a major OW/pseudo-SkyTeam hub."

Weird statement. How does an airport manage to be a "pseudo-hub?"

Not sure if you were aware but Philly has had Discover for 2 years now as LH stated it was an employee and aircraft shortage and each seasons they keep stating LH would return.

This is deja vue all over again. I live in Philly and we have been stuck with Discover Airlines for 2 years and counting as LH stated back then that it was employee and aircraft shortage and each season they kept saying they would return back to mainline but haven't yet. So I won't be surprise if MSP doesn't return to LH in March 2026 as they stated unfortunately

LH Group reported their profits today and they not surprisingly fell because of higher staff expenses and operational irregularities (strikes) at LH as core LH staff fight back at the continued outsourcing of their jobs to subsidiaries.

LH generates half of the passenger revenue of the LH Group and yet had the lowest margin.

Condor has a Minneapolis to Frankfurt flight as well so if only for people looking for cruises that would be enough.

Not that weird. Delta says SEA is a hub, but in practice a hub only matters if you're successful. And we all know about Delta's bottom tier performance at SEA.

you mean you and others incessantly repeat unconfirmed drivel based on hearsay until you believe it is fact.

Airlines don't report profit by hub. They do report by global region. Delta manages to report the highest total profits, profit per seat mile across the Pacific, and highest profit across the Atlantic.

How, pray tell, does Delta support all of these hubs that people like are convinced are unprofitable and still end up with profitability as high as they do?

and better yet, what has DL managed to do to support all of these unprofitable hubs that AA and UA haven't figured out in the same almost 5 decades of deregulation?

and where do AA and UA manage to lose so much more money than DL?

you simply can't stand that DL has managed to build 2 new hubs in the past 10 years and is on the verge of another at AUS while AA and UA have done nothing in that regard

I think it's fairly obvious that LH wasn't earning nearly enough premium business on this route. It would take a lot for business pax used to the relationship with Delta to book away from their 'local' (ex NWA) carrier/alliance offering multiple EU gateways.
So it makes a lot of sense to down-gauge to a 2-2-2 business class, one that I presume premium leisure pax will purchase ... at the right price.
I have no idea how much legwork LH (or partner UA) put in to try to reach corporate travel depts. at the big MN employers, but it seems like Lufthansa was welcomed more by economy travelers than pointy-end people. I'm just glad they're going to keep service under a different name (and cost structure).

Condor's season at MSP is quite short. It may line up with some peak summer cruise business, but it's not that much capacity over the course of a year.

Interesting. I suppose premium cruise passengers are probably more OK with 2-2-2 J class than many solo business passengers would be, if the air upgrade is priced right.