Lufthansa Starts Low-Cost Offensive

Lufthansa airlines will introduce lower-price flights from additional destinations if its new Hamburg service proves to be a success. "If it appears that there are similar opportunities in other markets, we will do it," Lufthansa manager Christoph Klingenberg, who is responsible for the program, said Thursday. Starting Saturday, passengers will be able to take Lufthansa from Hamburg to 23 European destinations and back for 99 euros ($118). The company aims for the new service to quell the expansion of discount air carriers in Germany. Lufthansa was able to offer the low-price tickets, which Klingenberg said would be available for 20-30 percent of the seats on Hamburg flights, thanks to cutting personnel costs and deploying larger planes more effectively. Klingenberg didn't indicate where else the low-cost tickets could be introduced. But Germany's biggest airports, in Frankfurt and Munich, had already been ruled out in the past, according to Reuters. Hamburg's airport could profit from 1 million more passengers if Lufthansa's service is a success.