Lufthansa Reactivates A380 Boston, New York Flights

As per airways magazine, Lufthansa is finally Reactivating the A380. Boston and New York will be the first destinations served by the super Jumbo; after a 3 year hiatus flying the type.


https://airwaysmag.com/lufthansa-a380-b ... ZJv4dj0g9c

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Details posted in the LH thread

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1479899

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

BOS has O&D. It doesn't need *A connections. Just the same way LH flies MUC/FRA-JFK as well as EWR.

BOS-MUC has always been a particularly strong route. IIRC, BOS was one of the first A346 routes out of MUC.

I thought I read somewhere that LH would be making LAX all 748/380 from both MUC and FRA starting this summer? What about SFO?

Glad to see BOS get the upgauage. I’m a little surprised about JFK, especially with LH’s partner UA over at EWR.

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Isn't airways based in Dallas now?

mesasurf wrote:

I thought I read somewhere that LH would be making LAX all 748/380 from both MUC and FRA starting this summer? What about SFO?

Glad to see BOS get the upgauage. I’m a little surprised about JFK, especially with LH’s partner UA over at EWR.

LAX was considered to be one of the first A380 routes but the problem is that the total MUC-LAX-MUC time is too long for a 2/3/4 aircraft rotation. That's why it dropped out.

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Depending how you define “focus market” I’d say Star Alliance has a robust international offering from BOS:

AC: BOS-YUL
AC: BOS-YOW
AC: BOS-YYZ
AC: BOS-YVR
AV: BOS-BOG
AV: BOS-SAL
CM: BOS-PTY
LH: 2x BOS-FRA
LH: BOS-MUC
LX: 2x BOS-ZRH
SK: BOS-CPH
TP: 2x BOS-LIS
TK: BOS-IST
UA: BOS-LHR

I’d say that’s an incredibly robust offering for *Alliance from BOS.

In addition - In 2020 Austrian was scheduled to start BOS-VIE until the pandemic cancelled that. There was also mention recently directly from LOT about BOS-WAW starting though nothing has been officially announced yet.

mesasurf wrote:

I thought I read somewhere that LH would be making LAX all 748/380 from both MUC and FRA starting this summer? What about SFO?

Glad to see BOS get the upgauage. I’m a little surprised about JFK, especially with LH’s partner UA over at EWR.

LH has always done better business at JFK than EWR, for obvious reasons. Also, EWR is not on the MoS list for the A380, so scheduled flights can't go there.

BOS has F demand and demand overall. It also allows for single aircraft operation. Hence why it is there.

If I am not wrong the A380s are supposed to remain in service till a sufficient number of A350-1000 will be delivered.
They should reactivate up to 6 or 8 A380s till Summer 2024.
The A35K should arrive from 2025 onward so I expect the A380s to remain in service till around 2028.
Unless, of course, things change. LH is well known for changing their minds often.

BOS-MUC has historically been a very strong performer for LH and has been flown by LH aircraft with F cabins (except during the height of the pandemic). Given the premium demand and strong load factors it surprises me no other airline has attempted to start MUC from BOS as well. LH has always had a monopoly on it.

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Although not technically a resumption, the A380 was scheduled for MUC-BOS for the Summer of 2020 but then you know what happened. So call it a resumption of schedule, for now
There's a reason why BOS has 3 A380 gates with direct lounge access: BA, EK, LH. Unfortunately only BA has used the A380 with regularity, EK just seasonally for 1 Summer, and LH never did.
In any case, LH does very well on both the FRA and MUC routes. Sadly there is no competition on those routes and the fares are high. Their displeasure with Fraport has led LH to shift some traffic patterns away from FRA, to MUC. Combined with MUC's congestion, the logical way to grow is by up-gauging.

airbazar wrote:

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Although not technically a resumption, the A380 was scheduled for MUC-BOS for the Summer of 2020 but then you know what happened. So call it a resumption of schedule, for now
There's a reason why BOS has 3 A380 gates with direct lounge access: BA, EK, LH. Unfortunately only BA has used the A380 with regularity, EK just seasonally for 1 Summer, and LH never did.
In any case, LH does very well on both the FRA and MUC routes. Sadly there is no competition on those routes and the fares are high. Their displeasure with Fraport has led LH to shift some traffic patterns away from FRA, to MUC. Combined with MUC's congestion, the logical way to grow is by up-gauging.

Thanks for clarifying. I'm just curious as I'm not familiar with the market (I know that Boston generally punches well above its weight when it comes to aviation). I'm vaguely aware of the business ties between Boston and the British Isles (finance, tech, etc.), but not that familiar with its ties to Germany. Outside of New York and major Star Alliance centers, are there any other US cities that have LH service to both BOS and MUC (let alone the A380)? I can't think of any (maybe MIA)?

[and yes, some of this is driven by jealously - I would love to have more Germany service at DFW, but I don't think AA or LH will (re)launch service to MUC any time soon]

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Thanks for clarifying. I'm just curious as I'm not familiar with the market (I know that Boston generally punches well above its weight when it comes to aviation). I'm vaguely aware of the business ties between Boston and the British Isles (finance, tech, etc.), but not that familiar with its ties to Germany. Outside of New York and major Star Alliance centers, are there any other US cities that have LH service to both BOS and MUC (let alone the A380)? I can't think of any (maybe MIA)?

[and yes, some of this is driven by jealously - I would love to have more Germany service at DFW, but I don't think AA or LH will (re)launch service to MUC any time soon]

Boston often gets overshadowed by NYC but Mass has the 3rd largest GDP per capita in the country. Our economy is driven by industry sectors that are global and generate a lot of travel. We also have a lot of immigrant groups. Unlike most cities/states where immigration is predominantly from Latin America/Mexico, Mass's immigrant population is very diverse. In that scenario I don't think it's entirely fair to say that BOS punches above its weight. I would argue that if not for the airport's constraints BOS would have even more service than it currently has.
Although the business ties to Germany are many, MUC is a hub for Europe. LH serves just about every significant city in Europe from MUC. MIA is another non-*A city with service from both MUC and FRA.

airbazar wrote:

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Thanks for clarifying. I'm just curious as I'm not familiar with the market (I know that Boston generally punches well above its weight when it comes to aviation). I'm vaguely aware of the business ties between Boston and the British Isles (finance, tech, etc.), but not that familiar with its ties to Germany. Outside of New York and major Star Alliance centers, are there any other US cities that have LH service to both BOS and MUC (let alone the A380)? I can't think of any (maybe MIA)?

[and yes, some of this is driven by jealously - I would love to have more Germany service at DFW, but I don't think AA or LH will (re)launch service to MUC any time soon]

Boston often gets overshadowed by NYC but Mass has the 3rd largest GDP per capita in the country. Our economy is driven by industry sectors that are global and generate a lot of travel. We also have a lot of immigrant groups. Unlike most cities/states where immigration is predominantly from Latin America/Mexico, Mass's immigrant population is very diverse. In that scenario I don't think it's entirely fair to say that BOS punches above its weight. I would argue that if not for the airport's constraints BOS would have even more service than it currently has.
Although the business ties to Germany are many, MUC is a hub for Europe. LH serves just about every significant city in Europe from MUC. MIA is another non-*A city with service from both MUC and FRA.

Thanks again. When I mentioned "punching above its weight," I was focusing primarily on population, as Boston now doesn't even crack the top 10 MSAs (which is surprising). Of course, population alone doesn't dictate an aviation market, so this clarification is helpful (and the Boston area's population makes its GDP numbers all the more impressive).

And yes, I had forgotten about MIA's MUC service, which I think is seasonal.

BOS generates strong flow over MUC/FRA to other markets, too. Middle East, India, Africa, etc. Not just local demand.

Pharma has become a big traffic-generator of late at Boston, which helps make the case for the A380. The Kendall Square area of Cambridge, the Seaport District, and along the commuter rail tracks leading into North Station. The logos on the buildings are a who’s who of Pharma. Largely, those are the folks filling the front of these planes.

It should be noted that this is from MUC. MUC-JFK was never an A380 route pre-pandemic.

Just out of curiosity, but why are they flying the A380 out of MUC instead of FRA?

leader1 wrote:

Just out of curiosity, but why are they flying the A380 out of MUC instead of FRA?

LH is matching runway capacity with terminal capacity. Pre-COVID, and I assume it's still largely the same pattern, FRA was maxed out on passenger processing capacity in the terminal but had additional runway capacity (4 runways) to add flights, so LH started basing smaller aircraft there. MUC with only 2 runways, on the other hand, was out of runway capacity but plenty of additional passenger processing capacity in the terminal, and thus to better utilize the terminal capacity, LH began shifting A380s and other larger aircraft to MUC.

Another factor that probably impacted the decision was a bit of a spat between Fraport and LH pre-COVID, where LH didn't like how Fraport was offering LCCs such as Ryanair cheaper landing fees than LH in an effort to attract more LCCs to the airport.

I have always thought the A380 program was a mistake for both the airlines and for Airbus. But right now is perhaps it's best opportunity. Everyone is struggling to get employees (across the spectrum, not just pilots). This is a good opportunity to move a lot of people.

It is always interesting that some models find unexpected niches where they perform well. I'm still hoping to fly in a 380 someday somewhere.

airbazar wrote:

DFWGlobeTrotter wrote:

Interesting that this article has a Dallas dateline.

Is there any particular industry or corporate client that is driving BOS-MUC traffic? Just curious, since BOS doesn't seem to be a focus market for Star Alliance.

Although not technically a resumption, the A380 was scheduled for MUC-BOS for the Summer of 2020 but then you know what happened. So call it a resumption of schedule, for now
There's a reason why BOS has 3 A380 gates with direct lounge access: BA, EK, LH. Unfortunately only BA has used the A380 with regularity, EK just seasonally for 1 Summer, and LH never did.
In any case, LH does very well on both the FRA and MUC routes. Sadly there is no competition on those routes and the fares are high. Their displeasure with Fraport has led LH to shift some traffic patterns away from FRA, to MUC. Combined with MUC's congestion, the logical way to grow is by up-gauging.

Minor point of order, but DE also flew BOS-FRA seasonally last year. But MUC has always been a monopoly