Lufthansa Group has revealed quite the transatlantic expansion today. In addition to SWISS adding flights from Zurich to Washington and Toronto, Lufthansa is also adding flights to two new destinations in North America.
Lufthansa expands North America flights in 2024
As of the summer of 2024, Lufthansa will be adding nonstop flights from Frankfurt (FRA) to both Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) and Raleigh-Durham (RDU). Let’s go over the details of these new routes.
Lufthansa adds Frankfurt to Minneapolis route
As of June 4, 2024, Lufthansa will be introducing 5x weekly year-round service between Frankfurt and Minneapolis. The airline will operate the flight with the following schedule:
LH482 Frankfurt to Minneapolis departing 11:10AM arriving 1:15PM
LH483 Minneapolis to Frankfurt departing 3:15PM arriving 6:40AM (+1 day)
The 4,393-mile flight is blocked at 9hr5min westbound and 8hr25min eastbound. Since the service is 5x weekly, Lufthansa won’t be operating the flight on Wednesdays and Fridays. Lufthansa will use a Boeing 787-9 for the service, featuring 294 seats. This includes 26 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 247 economy seats.
Lufthansa adds Frankfurt to Raleigh route
As of June 6, 2024, Lufthansa will be introducing 5x weekly year-round service between Frankfurt and Raleigh. The airline will operate the flight with the following schedule:
LH408 Frankfurt to Raleigh departing 10:20AM arriving 1:50PM
LH409 Raleigh to Frankfurt departing 3:50PM arriving 6:15AM (+1 day)
The 4,278-mile flight is blocked at 9hr30min westbound and 8hr25min eastbound. Since the service is 5x weekly, Lufthansa won’t be operating the flight on Wednesdays and Sundays. Lufthansa will use an Airbus A330-300 for the route, featuring 255 seats. This includes 42 business class seats, 28 premium economy seats, and 185 economy seats.
My take on Lufthansa’s transatlantic expansion
It’s always fun to see airlines adding service to new long haul markets, so these are two really cool additions, if you ask me. Let’s talk a bit about these two new routes.
Minneapolis is a Delta fortress hub, and a vast majority of the long haul service out of the airport is on Delta and its SkyTeam partners. However, the airport is slowly but surely getting service from other carriers. Aer Lingus recently announced it would add a Dublin to Minneapolis route, and now Lufthansa is adding service as well.
I’m curious to see how this route performs. I’m sure it’ll do fine in summer, but can this service be sustained in winter, when the local community is so fiercely loyal to Delta? While Delta doesn’t currently operate a Minneapolis to Frankfurt route, I have to imagine that will be added very shortly. I mean, Delta added a Minneapolis to Dublin route just hours after Aer Lingus announced it would launch that route.
Raleigh is also an interesting market, because it’s a city that has expanded nicely over the years, yet it’s not a full-on hub for any airline. Both American and Delta have a respectable presence there. As far as long haul service from the airport goes, American operates a flight to London, Delta operates a flight to Paris (which will be transferred to Air France this winter), Icelandair operates a route to Keflavik, and now Lufthansa will operate a route to Frankfurt. There aren’t many US airports that have exactly one transatlantic route from each of the three global alliances, so I think that’s pretty cool.
Bottom line
Lufthansa will nicely be expanding across the Atlantic in 2024, as the airline will add two new destinations to its route map. Lufthansa will fly from Frankfurt to both Minneapolis and Raleigh. It’s always great to see markets with limited competition or with limited transatlantic flights get more service, and I’m sure many consumers will appreciate this.
What do you make of Lufthansa adding flights to Minneapolis and Raleigh?
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