Last year there was excitement in Munich with the news that Lufthansa would transfer some prestigious services away from Frankfurt in favour of Munich.
In particular the Bavarian capital would be seeing more non-stop links to Asia.
Now comes news that one of these services may be about to suffer a ‘downgrade.’
Originally Lufthansa said its mainline division would be operating the Munich-Bangkok route from October 27.
It would be using a three-class A350 which is the most modern plane in the Lufthansa fleet.
Now it appears Lufthansa is about to change its mind.
Its latest media statement reveals that its budget subsidiary Eurowings will be operating daily flights on this route next autumn.
I quote “In the 2019/2020 winter schedule [effective October 27] Eurowings will be connecting Munich with Bangkok.”
If this is the case (and it’s difficult both operating alongside each other) it represents something of a downgrade.
In addition to the onboard service, the three-class Lufthansa A350 will be replaced by a three-class Eurowings A330 who seating may not be so generous.
Why? As Business Traveller has explained previously Europe-Bangkok is considered a leisure route and this means that yields/revenue for the airline will be low.
Indeed in 2012 one carrier, namely Scandinavia’s SAS, dropped its year-round Bangkok service after serving the Thai capital for no less than 63 years.
And today the SAS website shows no flights (aside from a codeshare service) being operated at all to Bangkok.
So from a European airline’s viewpoint why use your best aircraft?
Note that at the time of writing (March 8) lufthansa.com continues to display Munich-Bangkok (from October 27) operated by Lufthansa mainline using that A350.
When I checked eurowings.com today there was no display at all for Munich-Bangkok.
So will both carriers update their websites? Business Traveller has requested more information from Lufthansa and will provide updates when received.