Lufthansa Starts Bizjet Service
With PrivatAir BBJ

PrivatAir operates three BBJs. One will go to Lufthansa.

Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to introduce a business jet on one of its thin long-haul routes.

The airline plans to reintroduce its six times weekly service from Dusseldorf to Newark/New Jersey on June 17 using a BBJ wet-leased from Geneva-based VIP operator PrivatAir.

The aircraft will be configured in a 48-seat, all-business layout, superior to Lufthansa's mainline product. Seat pitch in business class on Lufthansa's A340s and Boeing 747-400s is 48 inches, whereas PrivatAir offers 55 inches.

PrivatAir operates five aircraft including three BBJs, which are serviced by Lufthansa's MRO arm, Lufthansa Technik (here at Booth 7441). Under the wet-lease with Lufthansa, PrivatAir will provide both aircraft and crew. PrivatAir is at EBACE in Booth 7082.

Lufthansa has looked at various ways of offering a New York service for the North-Rhine Westphalia business community, one of the most populated and economically important regions in Germany.

It currently has no scheduled long-haul service into the area. According to a spokeswoman, dispatching an A340 would not have been economically viable. Business traffic would have been sufficient, but Lufthansa did not believe it could fill the economy cabin at reasonable fares.

The move was not the beginning of a new business concept, and at this point Lufthansa did not consider other routes, she said.

Using business jets for high-yield customers is not unheard of. British Airways has studied the possibility, and Virgin Atlantic was close to using Gulfstream Vs on the London-New York route before BA reintroduced Concorde late last year.

The biggest business jet venture by a scheduled airline, United's Avolar, was shut down earlier this year almost before it began as its parent fought to weather financial problems.

Other companies have attempted to start business-class-only scheduled services with airliners but none have succeeded.