The magnanimous and altruistic Lufthansa CEO, Carsten Spohr, cares so much about the environment and living wages that he wants to ban cheap flights within Europe. What a saint!
I’ve been traveling around the world and put this story on the back-burner for a few days, but do want to address it now. Speaking to Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag, Spohr said 10EUR flights are:
…economically, ecologically, and politically irresponsible. Flights for less than 10EUR shouldn’t exist.
Bravo. What a caring man. Let’s all applaud this champion of the common man and Mother Earth and support Lufthansa’s effort to keep Ryanair and EasyJet out of Germany (and all of Europe). After all, those cheap flights encourage people to fly, meaning people are encouraged to pollute. And to offer fares so cheap means that workers are not being paid enough. There can be no other explanation.
Instead, we should all pay triple to quadruple to fly on Lufthansa, which pays their workers so well they never strike…and whose Airbus and Boeing fleet is oh so much more fuel efficient than their competition.
I do trust you picked up on my sarcasm.
As One Mile at a Time asks, where is Lufthansa’s campaign encouraging its full-fare business class passengers from having a virtual meeting, rather than flying out to meet face-to-face?
This is pure hypocrisy on the part of the Lufthansa CEO, who is understandably anxious that his low-cost Eurowings division has largely failed and that Ryanair and EasyJet are growing in Germany, a market Lufthansa once took for granted.
Spohr should know there really are no such thing as 10EUR fares, once credit card fees, baggage fees, priority boarding fees, seat assignment fees, and a la carte pricing for food and drink onboard are factored in. It is simply a different business model than Lufthansa.
Furthermore, Spohr should know that Ryanair has a younger and more fuel efficient fleet than Lufthansa.
Perhaps Spohr is indignant that these budget carriers have taken advantage of advantageous tax arrangements to avoid paying as much tax as Lufthansa. I do not see how Ryanair can be blamed for operating out of Dublin.
Are you sensing a pattern?
CONCLUSION
Spohr did give me a good laugh, but that was followed by shaking my head in disbelief. It really takes a certain amount of superciliousness to say what he said. While I hope his words were taken out of context, that does not appear to be the case.
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Just look at the difference in LH fares for MUC-Berlin, where Easyjet competes and MUC-HAM, where LH doesn’t have any competition. I can see why he does t like Easyjet entering the intra German market.
What a paragon of virtue! Spohr is in no way a weasel.
Another bit of light relief. Frogs and toads in Toronto’s island airport 🙂
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/frog-days-summer-billy-bishop-airport-1.5215305
I do think it is worth noting that not all LCCs are created equal. I truly enjoy flying EasyJet and find that they are high-quality, nice people, and are reasonable with their policies and procedures. On the other hand, I have a special hatred for Ryanair. They are the Spirit Airlines of Europe.
There are definitely 10 EUR fares. I’ve paid 1 EUR once and less than 10 EUR on several occasions, with no extra fees, to fly Ryanair between UK, Spain and France.
For those travelling LH European Y, don’t fly hungry. Food up at the lounge if you can.
LH info:
Unfortunately, personnel shortages at our catering service provider are currently restricting the loading of our domestic German and European flights. Therefore Lufthansa cannot provide the usual choice of drinks and meals on these flights. In particular, this affects the catering loading of Economy Class on flights between 60 and 180 minutes. Longer European or long-haul flights are not affected. The flights of our partners and Lufthansa Cityline are also not affected. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Yeah, the announcement of the intent to sell LSG hasn’t gone down well.
A colleague that flew them yesterday morning was given a KitKat in Y instead of the usual catering.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/cheap-flights/ryanairs-latest-sale-flights-less-18668235