Lufthansa, SIA launch code sharing flights to Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Lufthansa German Airlines and Singapore Airlines (SIA) launched a strategic alliance on Monday by introducing code sharing flights in a bid to maintain their market share in crisis-hit Indonesia.

Lufthansa's country manager here, Carlos M. Heinemann, said the code sharing flights were part of his company's efforts to keep its commitment to provide seven flights a week from Frankfurt to Jakarta, although the airline itself will only run four.

"This alliance allows us to continue providing seven flights a week to our consumers. Starting on Oct. 25, we are offering four direct flights linking Jakarta-Frankfurt and three code sharing flights in cooperation with Singapore Airlines," he told The Jakarta Post after announcing the deal.

Under the alliance, Lufthansa will offer seven flights per week linking Jakarta-Frankfurt via Singapore, comprising of four direct flights operated by Lufthansa every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and three code sharing flights operated by SIA every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Passengers flying on these latter days will fly SIA on the Jakarta-Singapore leg and join the Lufthansa Singapore-Frankfurt flight for the long haul leg to Germany.

The code sharing flight will be offered at a discounted price of US$510 per passenger between Nov. 2 and Nov. 15. Thereafter the fare will be set at $623.

Heinemann said the offer would also help the Indonesian government to lure more tourists back to the country.

"It's bad if consumers hear that we are reducing flights and any such decision would worsen Indonesia's image in European countries, which is already not very good. By doing this we can continue helping the Indonesian government by bringing European passengers here," he said.

Heinemann said that there was a 30 percent decline in the number of tourists from Germany to Indonesia in the first half of this year.

"It's bad because German travelers usually stay for a long time, they spend at least two weeks here, and their expenditure here is very good," he said adding that German tourists to Indonesia had reached an average of 350,000 visitors a year before the crisis and unrest damaged the country's tourist industry.

Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines manager here, Vijendran Alfreds, said that SIA had no plans to reduce the frequency of its Jakarta-Singapore service despite a slight decrease in passenger numbers.

"Yes, we are suffering a little bit and yes there was a slight decrease in passenger numbers in the first months of this year. But it has improved over the past three months so we have no plan to reduce our service here because Indonesia is very important for us."

Alfreds said the SIA load factor was currently ranging between 60 percent and 70 percent. The airline currently provides seven daily flights linking Singapore-Jakarta, 10 weekly flights linking Singapore-Surabaya and three daily flights linking Singapore-Denpasar.

He added that the two airlines are also expanding their code sharing services to Australia, 11 destinations in Germany and to Brussels, Geneva and Vienna.

The alliance, which is the extension of an agreement first entered into in Sept. 1989, means Frankfurt will become SIA's hub in continental Europe, while Singapore will become Lufthansa's primary hub in Southeast Asia and Australasia. (gis)