Lufthansa approves of travel tax cut

THE GOVERNMENT’S decision to scrap the €3 air travel tax, along with new incentives from the Dublin Airport Authority, met with the approval of Lufthansa this week.

“Everything that reduces the cost of travel is welcome,” Marianne Sammann, Lufthansa’s general manager for the UK and Ireland, told me in Frankfurt this week. “It’s good news for passengers.”

Lufthansa has already made a contribution to our tourist push by restoring a weekly service from Dublin to Munich this summer after a break of a couple of years.

“It is mostly a holiday flight,” Sammann said. “Ireland is a hugely popular destination for German travellers.”

Lufthansa began flying to Ireland in 1972 and its main focus is around its three-times-a-day service between Dublin and Frankfurt.

The airline carried 251,104 passengers on this route in 2010, which represented growth of close to 9 per cent on the previous year.

Between January and April of this year, it carried 84,619, up 30.8 per cent. The disruptions cause by the Icelandic ash clouds depressed its 2009 numbers.

“We are delighted with this development,” Sammann said.

More than half of the traffic originating from Dublin uses Frankfurt as a long-haul hub, she added. Lagos, Milan, Tel Aviv, Munich and Moscow were the most popular onward connections.

Sammann wouldn’t reveal Lufthansa’s Irish revenues but she conceded its average fare declined last year due to the tough economic environment.

Its fares start at €99 (including taxes and charges) for a round trip.

Looking to the future, Lufthansa is in the middle of a €2.9 billion refit of its fleet and some of the aircraft flying to Dublin have been fitted with new slimline seats that offer more legroom.

Would Lufthansa buy the Government’s 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus if it put up for sale?

“I don’t know of any plans to further buy [an airline] at the moment,” Sammann said.

“We are focusing on our existing group of companies .”