Lufthansa’s European Growth from Dusseldorf

German national carrier Lufthansa is expanding its European network from a number of German cities for summer 2012. Alongside the previously reported developments at Munich, we can now report on the airline’s plans to enhance its network from Dusseldorf with new links to Helsinki and Krakow.

Lufthansa will offer a new daily flight to the Finnish capital from March 25, 2012 and a twice daily weekday connection (with one weekend rotation) to Krakow. These flights will be operated by a Boeing 737-500 (Helsinki) and a Bombardier CRJ700 (Krakow).

An estimated 119,000 O&D passengers travelled between Dusseldorf and Helsinki last year and around 11,000 flew between the German city and Krakow. There is currently no competition to the Polish city, although airberlin does offer a seasonal service on this route, while Lufthansa will compete directly with airberlin and Finnair to Helsinki. The two airlines offer a daily and twice daily service to the Finnish capital and hold a 53 per cent and 40 per cent share of the traffic, respectively.