Lufthansa

Lufthansa strengthens its position in Africa

Lufthansa has been strengthening its competitive position in key petroleum and gas markets in West Africa over recent years. With Nigeria being Africa’stop petroleum producer, and numerous oilfields being located close to Port Harcourt Airport, it was to become a natural progression for Lufthansa to choose Port Harcourt in April 2005 as its new destination in Africa. Knowing that the major traffic flow is from the oil and gas companies, timetables have been tailored to the requirements of the local oil industry and timed to allow onward flights by helicopter to the oil platforms. Flights have also been optimally coordinated with the dense route network operated by Lufthansa and its StarAlliance partners.

Lufthansa has a long history in Nigeria as the airline has been flying there for 43 years. The first flight to Lagos took off on March 4, 1962 and was thus not only the inaugural flight to Nigeria, but also the first Lufthansa destination on the African continent. Nigeria was also among the first 25 countries the airline started flying to (before many European destinations!). Up to four years ago, Lufthansa operated only four flights a week to Nigeria; today there are 10 weekly flights, arise of 150 per cent.

On top of this, Lufthansa serves 14 destinations in Africa (including the new Port Harcourt route), Swiss has been operating nine. Within this region, Lufthansa is operating flights to Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Accra. Swiss is operating flights to Malabo, Yaoundeand Douala; both airlines have quite a comprehensive portfolio. This gives Lufthansa a firm base to significantly improve its position in West Africa, where(together with Swiss) the airline is serving 20 destinations.

Lufthansa has become not only a successful operating carrier in Nigeria, but also a well-respected employer and a social citizen,supporting local needs and assisting the needs of the people of Nigeria. At the moment Lufthansa is supporting two community projects: a children hospital in the local Obizi people area, and the reconstruction of a marketplace in Omagwa village (together with the German Julius Berger Engineering Company).

Lufthansa is a unique story of success. Having just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, Lufthansa is proud in what has been achieved over the years. Building and developing an airline from scratch after the Second World War into an innovative, modern, service-orientated enterprise that competes with the best airlines in the world, Lufthansa has a clear focus on providing world-class service. This has made her one of the leading airlines in the world.

Knowing the market and its needs enables Lufthansa to tailor make the necessary requirements and to satisfy customer demand. For example, Departing from Port Harcourt in the late evening passengers will have all the opportunities to connect to all the important oil destinations, as well as Europe and other parts of the world. Lufthansa has ensured that the quality of connection to Port Harcourt is excellent. Compared to some other airlines who do not fly to Port Harcourt until the late evening (which means the customers have to hang around for a long time at other airports), Lufthansa’s customers can for example arrive in Frankfurt early in the morning from their worldwide business locations such as North America,and enjoy a direct connection to Port Harcourt. This ensures arrival in Port Harcourt on the same day, with timetables synchronised with helicopters flying to and from the oil platforms.

Lufthansa has an important oil-destination network strategy. Energy is the driving force for a prospering economy. That is why the relations between Nigeria,the world’s fifth biggest oil producer, and Germany are so prosperous. The biggest export “article” of Nigeria is oil and gas. Without oil and gas in Germany,production and economy would stop working. It is therefore only natural that Nigeria is, after South Africa,the most important trading partner for Germany in Africa.
Lufthansa firmly believes in the opportunities that Nigeria and Africa offer which is why Lufthansa is here,paying - like every other airline - landing fees, handling fees, navigation fees and royalties to the government. Lufthansa understands the importance of supporting the trade and oil business between Nigeria and the rest of the world.

Therefore, we hope that Port Harcourt airport can accommodate the fast-growing international traffic that is so beneficial for Nigeria. An expansion to give its customers room for check-in counters, security checks and waiting lounges might be useful. With regard to this, Lufthansa would like to thank the airport authorities for their extraordinary co-operation and airport staff for their fantastic support.

Biography

Dr Holger Hätty is Executive Vice President of Network Management, IT and Purchasing as well as a member of the Airline Board of Lufthansa German Airlines. Dr Hätty’s role encompasses the responsibility for managing infrastructure costs, the introduction of the Airbus A380 to the Lufthansa fleet and expanding the capacity of Frankfurt Airport.