Wow: Lufthansa Group Adding 6 New US Routes

Lufthansa Group has just announced some significant transatlantic expansion, which will kick in as of the summer 2020 schedule. This latest development is in addition to the recent announcement of Swiss launching flights between Zurich and Washington.

This latest expansion involves Lufthansa out of Munich, as well as Eurowings (Lufthansa’s low cost subsidiary) out of both Frankfurt and Munich. So let’s take a look at the details.

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Lufthansa’s long haul Munich expansion

Lufthansa will be launching three new routes as of the summer of 2020 — two will be westbound and one will be eastbound. All three routes will be operated by A350-900 aircraft. These feature a total of 293 seats, including 48 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 224 economy seats.

Lufthansa’s new Munich to Seattle flight

As of June 1, 2020, Lufthansa will launch 6x weekly flights between Munich and Seattle. These flights will operate with the following schedule every day except Thursdays:

Munich to Seattle departing 3:30PM arriving 4:55PM
Seattle to Munich departing 6:45PM arriving 1:50PM

This will complement Lufthansa’s existing Frankfurt to Seattle flight.

Lufthansa’s new Munich to Detroit flight

As of May 4, 2020, Lufthansa will launch 5x weekly flights between Munich and Detroit. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays:

Munich to Detroit departing 12:40PM arriving 3:45PM
Detroit to Munich departing 5:35PM arriving 7:45AM (+1 day)

This will complement Lufthansa’s existing Frankfurt to Detroit flight.

Lufthansa’s new Munich to Bangalore flight

As of March 31, 2020, Lufthansa will launch 5x weekly flights between Munich and Bangalore. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays:

Munich to Bangalore departing 11:55AM arriving 12:05AM (+1 day)
Bangalore to Munich departing 1:45AM arriving 7:30AM

This will complement Lufthansa’s existing Frankfurt to Bangalore flight.

Eurowings’ long haul Frankfurt & Munich expansion

This is a bit odd, since not too long ago I was under the impression that Lufthansa Group was planning on discontinuing long haul flights with Eurowings. Apparently not, and quite to the contrary, the airline is poised for significant growth.

All routes will be operated by A330 aircraft, featuring up to 270 seats.

Interestingly Eurowings has installed “proper” business class seats on this plane, and it’s basically the same as Lufthansa’s business class product.

I believe all/most of these new routes will be seasonal, given that they’re leisure-oriented, though I haven’t seen an end date published for the service.

So, what should we expect?

Eurowings’ new Munich to Las Vegas flight

As of April 6, 2020, Eurowings will launch 2x weekly flights between Munich and Las Vegas. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Mondays and Fridays:

Munich to Las Vegas departing 11:45AM arriving 2:40PM
Las Vegas to Munich departing 4:30PM arriving 12:55PM (+1 day)

This will complement Eurowings’ existing Dusseldorf to Las Vegas flight, as well as the Frankfurt to Las Vegas route that they’re launching as of October 2019.

Eurowings’ new Munich to Orlando flight

As of April 7, 2020, Eurowings will launch 3x weekly flights between Munich and Orlando. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays:

Munich to Orlando departing 9:10AM arriving 1:55PM
Orlando to Munich departing 3:45PM arriving 7:20AM (+1 day)

This will complement Lufthansa’s existing Frankfurt to Orlando flight.

Eurowings’ new Frankfurt to Phoenix flight

As of April 29, 2020, Eurowings will launch 5x weekly flights between Frankfurt and Phoenix. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays:

Frankfurt to Phoenix departing 2:05PM arriving 5:05PM
Phoenix to Frankfurt departing 6:55PM arriving 3:05PM (+1 day)

Eurowings’ new Frankfurt to Anchorage flight

As of June 1, 2020, Eurowings will launch 3x weekly flights between Frankfurt and Anchorage. These flights will operate with the following schedule on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays:

Frankfurt to Anchorage departing 10:30AM arriving 11:55AM
Anchorage to Frankfurt departing 1:55PM arriving 10:45AM (+1 day)

Bottom line

This is some huge expansion on the part of Lufthansa Group. It’s really interesting to see Lufthansa expanding significantly in Detroit and Seattle, given that these are two destinations where they don’t have much connecting traffic due to lack of partners.

The Eurowings expansion is fascinating as well, especially as the focus now seems to be on routes out of Frankfurt and Munich, rather than expansion out of Dusseldorf, as we have sometimes seen in the past.

What do you make of these new Lufthansa Group routes?