At a press conference held on February 19 in Bucharest, Lufthansa Group officials presented the figures on 2011, 2012, Romania, aircraft fleet, hub infrastructure and future plans. The information was presented by Patrick Artiel, General Manager Lufthansa Passenger Sales for Romania and Moldova; I offer Kisch, Lufthansa Group Regional Director in Central and Eastern Europe and Klaus Gorny, Director of Communication for Europe.
At first glance everything is fine, the prospects are good, things are moving in the right direction. In 2011, Lufthansa Group, which includes Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Germanwings, has transported over 100 million passengers and has operated over 1 million flights globally. In 2012, the German group carried with 2.4% more passengers, but operated with 1.6% fewer flights. Theoretically, this can be translated by an efficient operation.
Lufthansa Group it is very good in Romania as well. In 2012, Lufthansa carried more than 770 passengers, 000% more than in 12. Austrian Airlines and SWISS together carried more than 2011 passengers. Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SWISS operated 530 weekly flights to and from Romania, connecting the hubs of Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Dusseldorf, Vienna and Zurich to airports in Bucharest, Cluj, Sibiu, Iasi and Timisoara. Transport capacity on the routes Otopeni - Berlin / Vienna / Zurich and Sibiu - Munich has increased by 000%.
introduction direct flights from Berlin to Bucharest operated by Lufthansa, but also the increase of frequencies on certain already existing routes led to this important increase of the Lufthansa group in our country, reaching a market share of 26%. The development of operations in Romania will continue in 2013 with the reintroduction of seasonal flights Bucharest - Frankfurt and Sibiu - Munich, starting with April 1, 2013. An important strategic move also belongs to Germanwings, but about this in a separate article.
Lufthansa has big plans globally. Lufthansa Group has 135 orders for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, for a total value of 17 billion, wants to modernize existing ones and plans to refurbish the main hubs. In the fall of last year, Lufthansa inaugurated the new A-Plus Terminal at Frankfurt Airport, an investment of almost 800 million EUR.
There will be a great emphasis on the online side as well. Booking sites and services will be mobile-friendly. Lufthansa Group will pay more attention to social networks and the most important ones have been listed: twitter, facebook, youtube, flickr, tumblr etc. This news is a joy to me and it is good that it is trying to keep up with the technology and the new market trends.
But the situation of Lufthansa Group is not rosy. The European financial crisis, high fuel prices and competition from low-cost operators have pushed the group into a gray area. It was considered that in 2013 the dividends would no longer be paid and the registered profit be reinvested. Restructuring and reorganization projects will also continue to reduce losses. There will be a strong focus on fleet modernization. It is expected that by the end of the year 2025, the Lufthansa group will receive 239 of aircraft worth a total of 23 billion. Currently, over 500 projects are being developed that aim to bring the Lufthansa group back into profit.