Condor and Lufthansa used to be married. But Condor ran off with a British chap and now is part of the Thomas Cook Group. Although Condor retains (Lufthansa’s) Miles & More as its loyalty program, the two carriers are direct competitors. Now the two German airlines will compete head to head for primacy…in a second-tier California city.
I’m not saying that San Diego is second-tier. It’s one of my favorite cities in the world. What I am saying is that it has not traditionally been an international hub, especially with Los Angeles only two hours away. But SAN’s renaissance is already in play: British Airways service has been going strong for a couple years (after failing twice in the past). Last month, Condor began service between San Diego and Frankfurt. Just last week, Edeweleiss, a division of SWISS, began service between San Diego and Zurich.
Today, Lufthansa announced it would also begin service to San Diego, starting next summer. The schedule aircraft type has not been announced, but Lufthansa will operate five weekly flights from Frankfurt. If I had to guess, I’d suspect a high-density A340 operated by CityLine will be put on the route.
I’ll post an updated schedule once Lufthansa announced flight times. This could potentially be a treasure trove of award space.
CONCLUSION
One tip to Lufthansa: you might want to use a more recent picture of the San Diego skyline in your next press release:
The picture is at least a decade old since it only shows one Hyatt tower (left of picture). The Manchester Grand Hyatt added a second Seaport Tower in 2003. I fondly remember San Diego back in those days…but it has changed tremendously.
top image: Ken Fielding / Flickr
That’s great new re: Lufthansa. Too bad those BA SAN-LHR fares out of San Diego are usually 3x more expensive than their LAX or AA’s one-stop SAN & SNA counterparts….
They’ll keep the photo as is – works great in the typical Major Airline line of Bait-and-Switch.
As a San Diego native, I kind of prefer the photo anyway – it looks uncluttered and nice 🙂
Whoa, LH is operating the A380 out of MUC now??
just announced this morning – 5 A380s eventually based out of MUC, operating nonstops to PEK HKG LAX.
“especially with Los Angeles only two hours away.”
In what world?
By car…
Mojo- I fly the SAN-LHR route regularly and usually book more than two months in advance. The last time I flew, it was maybe $100 more than SAN-LAX-LHR or other one stops. The extra money is worth it to avoid a busy airport customs and passport control.
And it takes two hours by car- if you’re driving at 1am and going 80 mph
Guilty as charged.
We flew Condor’s FRA-SAN flight 2 weeks ago in C and the service was outstanding. The F/A’s were always smiling and came through the cabin often with the beverage cart and the food was very good. Seats were very comfortable and the flight arrived 45 minutes early. The entertainment system was similar to that offered on Austrian – functional but not a lot of recent movies. Price was good and we look forward to supporting the service again.
PS – Don’t forget that Condor now partner’s with Alaska’s Mileage Plan (although it’s kind of a work around to post Mileage Plan FF numbers and we are still waiting for those miles to post).
LH and Condor both fly FRA-SEA