FRA’s Global Network: 88 passenger airlines serve 247 destinations in 100 countries; Number of frequencies and seats increases, especially on intercontinental routes.
Frankfurt Airport’s new Winter Timetable 2015/2016 – which went into effect yesterday, Sunday, October 25 (in tandem with the changeover to wintertime) – will feature 88 passenger airlines flying to 247 destinations in 100 countries worldwide. Thus, Frankfurt Airport’s role as a key international hub in the global air transportation system has not diminished, even though the number of airlines and destinations will decline slightly compared to last year’s winter schedule (down by ten airlines and three destinations – see notes at the end of the release). More than half of the connections via Frankfurt Airport (FRA) are located outside of Europe and more than 60 percent of the seats offered on intercontinental routes via Germany are flown from gateway FRA.
Despite the slight 0.4 percent drop in flights to 4,040 takeoffs per week, the number of seats available via Frankfurt will increase by 1.8 percent to 685,000 seats per week – and even by 2.4 percent to 255,000 seats per week in the important intercontinental segment. This underscores the continuing trend toward utilization of larger aircraft types at FRA. For instance, Emirates will deploy an additional A380 aircraft in Frankfurt starting January 1, 2016, serving two of their three connections to Dubai (DXB) in the United Arab Emirates with the largest passenger aircraft in the world.
New Destinations and Airlines:
FRA’s new Winter Timetable 2015/2016 features various summerly destinations for escaping the cold temperatures. Lufthansa will be flying four times per week to Tampa (TPA) in the sunshine state of Florida, U.S.A. – a new destination Lufthansa introduced on September 25. Starting December, Condor will fly once per week to the Caribbean island of Martinique (FDF). In March 2016, Lufthansa will launch nonstop service five times per week to Panama City (PTY), the capital of Panama in Central America. In addition, Fraport will welcome a new airline to Frankfurt, when Air Arabia Maroc starts a twice-weekly service to Marrakesh (RAK), Morocco – thus complementing connections already provided by Lufthansa and Sun Express.
New Connections to Existing Destinations:
Lufthansa will commence thrice weekly service to Nairobi (NBO), Kenya, which the German carrier last served from FRA in October 2014. A large choice of connections await passengers wanting to travel to the beautiful warm-water beach destinations of Cancun (CUN) in Mexico, Male (MLE) on the Maldives, and Mauritius (MRU) in the southern Indian Ocean. Along with the existing Condor flights to these destinations (six, three and four times per week, correspondingly), Lufthansa will also be flying twice per week to each of these popular destinations. Rio de Janeiro (GIG) in Brazil, South America, will also have more connections from FRA, with Condor introducing two weekly Rio flights to its winter schedule – in addition to the daily Lufthansa service. In the heart of Europe, Lufthansa will take over the four daily connections to Luxembourg (LUX), which have until now been served by Luxair. Lufthansa will also extend several new flight additions to its latest summer schedule into the new FRA Winter Timetable: Aalborg (AAL) in Denmark, Bydgoszcz (BZG) in Poland, and Seville (SVQ) in Spain. Furthermore, Sun Express will launch a weekly service from FRA to Ras Al Khaimah (RKT) in the United Arab Emirates.
Increased Flight Frequencies:
A number of airlines will be expanding flight frequencies on existing routes served via FRA. For example, Alitalia will boost its frequencies to Milan-Linate (LIN) in northern Italy from 12 to 19 flights per week, while the Turkish carrier Pegasus will increase its flights to Istanbul-Sabiha Gokcen (SAW) from once to twice daily. Condor will increase its flights on the route to Havana (HAV), Cuba, from three to four per week. In the U.S. market, Condor will also add another flight to Las Vegas (LAS) for a total of three weekly connections to this pulsating desert metropolis. Beijing (PEK) in China will be served seven times per week by Air China, up from five flights. Lufthansa will expand services to Tel Aviv (TLV) in Israel from 17 to 20 times per week. In addition, Lufthansa will offer seven flights per week to Seoul (ICN) in South Korea, up from five. Iberia will add three more flights per week to Madrid (MAD), Spain, for a total of 21 frequencies per week.
(All comparisons refer to the corresponding FRA Winter Timetable 2014/2015.)
The following airlines will not fly via Frankfurt during Winter 2015/2016:
Air Dolomiti, Italy (destination Verona, Italy, will be served by parent company Lufthansa); US Airways, U.S.A. (merged into American Airlines); Luxair, Luxembourg (no slots requested, destination Luxemburg taken over by Lufthansa); Malaysian Airlines, Malaysia (no slots requested, after loss of two jets the airline is in a restructuring process); Yemenia, Yemen (after the outbreak of military conflict in Yemen, all long-distance flights have been discontinued since May 2015); Fly Niki, Austria (regular service to Germany discontinued, majority of shares belong to Air Berlin); Rossiya, Russia (no slots requested, majority of shares belong to Aeroflot); Globus, Russia (no slots requested); Cyprus Airways, Cyprus (ceased operations); Air Armenia, Armenia (ceased operations); Transaero, Russia (recently became insolvent).
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
