“Shuttle” Union of Lufthansa in Strasbourg
Did you know that Lufthansa operates a fortnightly flight between Frankfurt and Strasbourg, with a huge business class cabin, and with disproportionate fares? Me neither, until I came across this FlyerTalk thread.
Fortnightly flight Frankfurt-Strasbourg of Lufthansa
Twice a month, Lufthansa flies between Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) and Strasbourg, France (SXB). At only 111 miles, it is also one of Lufthansa’s shortest routes. The journey is so short that it is normally provided by a bus… except these twice a month.
These flights typically operate around the middle of each month, departing Frankfurt on Mondays and arriving in Frankfurt on Thursdays, according to the following schedule:
LH1072 Frankfurt to Strasbourg departs 1:25 p.m. arrives 2:20 p.m.
LH1073 Strasbourg to Frankfurt departs 2:05 p.m. arrives 3:00 p.m.
Even though the flight operates according to the above diagrams, tickets are not sold on the Strasbourg-Frankfurt flight on Mondays, and tickets are not sold on the Frankfurt-Strasbourg flight on Thursdays. So the plane works with passengers in one direction, and empty in the other direction.
What is the logic of this route? Well, Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament, and the European Parliament meets 12 sessions a year (so once a month).
In order to transport people there, Lufthansa sells tickets on this route that coincide with this schedule. Incidentally, while it is claimed that the European Parliament meets about four days a month, in reality they only “work” two full days, as they arrive on Monday afternoons and leave at about the same time on Thursday.
There are several things that make this even more interesting:
- Almost two-thirds of the plane is business class, as the business class cabin moves up to row 16 (there are only 25 rows on the Airbus A319)
- Fares on this route are exorbitant; if you just want to fly from Frankfurt to Strasbourg round trip, you’ll pay over $1,000 per person in economy class, which works out to over $5 per mile flown (it’s true that if you connect to other destinations, the rates will be different, and in some cases may be lower)
Is this theft reasonable, unnecessary or both?
Lufthansa offers several daily connections between Frankfurt and Strasbourg, but only by bus… except when officials want to travel, and then suddenly a plane is operated. Also keep in mind that the problem is not only that a plane is used for an 111 mile flight, but also that it is flying empty in one direction.
We’ve seen several countries in the European Union start adding bans and restrictions on short-haul flights for environmental reasons, but that same logic obviously doesn’t apply here.
Now, to be fair to this service:
- Many people on this flight are likely connecting beyond Frankfurt to other EU countries; at the same time, “regular” passengers traveling from Strasbourg to other destinations on Lufthansa must first take a bus, and what makes this flight even worse is that it is totally empty in one direction
- In many cases, these are senior government officials, and presumably if this flight did not exist, they could travel on private jets, which would be even worse; in other words, these people probably wouldn’t take the bus otherwise
- Regardless of their political affiliation or beliefs, it is generally accepted that senior government officials travel in unnecessary ways that are discouraged for others; I mean, the American president (regardless of political party) travels almost everywhere on a 747
I’m tempted to book this flight for some time as I imagine there must be a very interesting crowd on board…
At the end of the line
As an avgeek, I love discovering seemingly random routes, and I would consider Lufthansa’s Frankfurt-Strasbourg flight to be one of them. While Lufthansa usually operates a bus between Frankfurt and Strasbourg, the airline flies twice a month between the two cities. This coincides with the meeting of the European Parliament.
Thus, twice a month, the company provides the Frankfurt-Strasbourg link with an A319 equipped with a huge business class cabin, and the flight is unladen one-way on each of the routes.
What do you think of the Lufthansa Strasbourg shuttle?