Showing posts with label Germanwings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germanwings. Show all posts

09 April, 2020

Major restructuring and downsizing for the Lufthansa Group an omen of things to come for the European aviation industry

Six A380s are being axed from the Lufthansa fleet.                                                                              Photo Airbus
With the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis, showing no real signs of slowing in Europe, one of the unions biggest airline groups has released details of a drastic initial downsizing.

The Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG does not expect the aviation industry to return to pre-coronavirus (PC) crisis levels very quickly and with that in mind, it has decided to instigate an initial round of downsizing.

This major downsizing will affect almost all flight operations of the Lufthansa Group and is perhaps an omen of what is to come from carriers around the world.

The tragic news for fans of the double-decker A380 is that the airline will withdraw six of them immediately and they will be decommissioned and offered for sale.  They were,  prior to coronavirus (PC) scheduled to be removed from service and up for sale to Airbus in 2022 anyway.

12 February, 2018

Increased passenger numbers for Lufthansa group in January 2018

In January 2018, the airlines of the Lufthansa Group welcomed around 8.7 million passengers. This shows an increase of 10.1% compared to the previous year’s month. The available seat kilometers were up 8% over the previous year, at the same time, sales increased by 7.4%. The seat load factor decreased by 0.4 percentage points compared to January 2017 to 75.6%.

The Network Airlines Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS and Austrian Airlines carried 6.5 million passengers in January, 5.4% more than in the prior-year period. Compared to the previous year, the available seat kilometers increased by 5.4% in January. The sales volume was up 3.9% over the same period, decreasing seat load factor by 1.1 percentage points to 75.7%.

Lufthansa German Airlines transported 4.5 million passengers in January, a 5.7% increase compared to the same month last year. A 6.1% increase in seat kilometers in January corresponds to a 4.8% increase in sales. Furthermore, the seat load factor was 76.6%, therefore one percentage point below the prior-year’s level.

10 September, 2017

Eurowings Reach Deal With Crew

The budget airlines Eurowings and Germanwings, part of the Lufthansa group, have reached an agreement in principle on wages and retirement benefits with German cabin crew union UFO, Eurowings said on Sunday.

The outline deal, reached over the weekend, could end a three-year dispute which forced the cancellation of around 400 flights last October, after cabin crew at budget airlines Eurowings and Germanwings staged a strike.

The collective wage agreement includes wage levels, profit participation and a pension deal for around 1,400 staff, Eurowings said in a press release on Sunday.

The agreement needs to be formally approved and voted on by UFO’s management and Lufthansa Group’s senior management.


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17 August, 2017

Will Lufthansa Buy 100 Air Berlin Aircraft? Ryanair's Not Happy. Could IAG be Interested? The Air Berlin Gossip Bubble

Lufthansa is in negotiations to buy a majority of Air Berlin's aircraft, with the backing of the German Government, which is, according to local media, looking for an aviation 'champion' to come to the rescue.   The German flag carrier may take upto 100 of the 140 Air Berlin fleet some analysts are predicting.  No comment on that theory yet from the German airline, although it is a possibility - with nothing being ruled out at this stage.   

Air Berlin's collapse may be a god send for Lufthansa and the other airlines in its group, if they takes up the chance to acquire slots at busy airports such as Berlin Tegel and Duesseldorf. The German national carrier is keen to defend its domestic position against the expansion of the low-cost carriers like Ryanair.  

01 April, 2015

4U9525 Final Moments Video

Ministere de L'Interieur /AFP/Getty ImagesBreaking news reports from various news agencies are mixed about a report from the French Alps that a mobile phone had been found that contains a video of the final moments of the doomed Germanwings flight. 
According to most reports, the video was shot from the back of the plane, and ties in with official accounts of the cockpit recording that prompted investigators to conclude co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the captain out of the cockpit and then intentionally crashed the aircraft into the side of a mountain. 
European newspapers - Bild from Germany and Paris Match, fropm France are reporting they have seen the video and claim it was leaked by in informant close to the head of the investigation team. 

Lufthansa Knew Pilots Depression in 2009.

The Lufthansa co-pilot at the controls of the Germanwings Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps last week informed his bosses in 2009 that he had suffered from severe depression, says the airline this week.

Lufthansa advised on Tuesday that a search of their records found an email showing that first officer Andreas Lubitz, had informed the company of his condition as he was seeking to rejoin its training program after an absence of several months. 

According to the airline groups statement, Lubitz had sent its flight training school the email that had included medical documents describing a “previous episode of severe depression.” 

27 March, 2015

Suicide or mass murder? Germanwings Flight 9525

Suicide or mass murder?   Germanwings Flight 9525
 
It now appears beyond all reasonable doubt that first officer Andreas Lubitz deliberately flew the Airbus A320 into the side of a mountain in the French Alps killing all 149 other souls on board.
 Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin, in charge of the investigation, confirmed reports that the captain left the cabin minutes before the crash and was unable to get back in, during a special press conference yesterday.

Robin told the assembled journalists that pounding could be heard on the door during the final minutes of the flight as alarms sounded to signal that the aircraft was too close to land.
The black box recording showed that the captain and co-pilot talked normally and "courteously" for the first 20 minutes of the flight after it took off from Barcelona. Already that morning that had flown the aircraft together, with no incidents reported or mentioned.
"Then we hear the pilot ask the co-pilot to take the controls and a seat being pulled back and a door closing. We can assume he left to answer nature's call," said Robin. "The co-pilot is left alone at the controls. We hear several calls from the pilot asking for entry into the cockpit. There is no response from the co-pilot."
“The co-pilot did not say a word once the captain left the cockpit and his breathing was normal throughout the final minutes of the flight.” Robin said. Hauntingly he confirmed that screams of passengers could be heard in the last final moments of the recording before the aircraft hit the ground.
More focus is now being spent on the mental state of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who lived with his parents in the small western German town of Montabour. He had qualified as a pilot at the Lufthansa training centre in Bremen, he then started flying for low-cost subsidiary, Germanwings, shortly after completing the course in 2013.  At the time of this final flight, Lubitz had accumulated just over 630 hours of flight experience, according to a Lufthansa spokeswoman.
Lubitz was an avid runner who often took part in local races and was a member of a private flying club in Montabour, where he was described as upbeat - "He was happy he had the job with Germanwings and he was doing well. He was very happy. He gave off a good feeling.”
German investigators have confirmed that evidence retrieved from Lubitz’s Dusseldorf flat indicate the young pilot was suffering from an unspecified mental illness. Lubitz. German media is reporting that the pilot took a six-month break from flight training in 2009 due to ‘burnout-syndrome’ and that he had continued to have “specific and regular medical treatment” ever since that bout of depression.
Carsten Spohr, CEO of Germanwings’ parent company Lufthansa, had already told the media that Lubitz took a "several-month gap" six years ago. However, he said: "I am not able to state the reasons why he took the break." Lubitz later resumed training and passed all his tests, including psychological and medical exams, Spohr said, adding that the co-pilot was deemed “100 percent fit to fly without any restrictions”.
“We can only speculate what might have been the motivation of the co-pilot," Spohr added. "In our worst nightmares we could not have imagined that this kind of tragedy could happen to us".
According to German media reports, the Germen investigators have found a torn up ‘sick note’ excusing Lubitz from work on the day of the crash.  
 
 

25 March, 2015

Germanwings Crew Refuse to Fly

Germanwings have confirmed today that some pilots and cabin crew have refused to fly on the airlines flights following the devastating crash yesterday. 
Germanwings confirmed there were "occasional flight disruptions" on its network due to "crew members who decided not to operate aircraft" following the crash of Flight 4U9525 with 150 people aboard en route to Dusseldorf, Germany.

Germanwings 9525 Crash


The aviation industry is in mourning today after the shock crash of the Germanwings Airbus A320 yesterday morning. As the investigation in to the cause of the disaster is in its infancy more information emerged today of the flights final moments

The French environment and transport minister, Ségolène Royal,  said today that the flight crew of the Airbus A320 had stopped responding on radio at 10.30am yesterday when the aircraft was over the Mediterranean.

The aircraft crashing into the side of a mountain in the French Alps just after 10.48am, it lost altitude rapidly, descending from 28,000 feet to less than 2,000 feet without transmitting any form of distress signal, either by radio or electronically.

Ms Royal said that events in the cockpit of the plane “between 10.30am and 10.31am” were “crucial” and may hold the “key” to unearthing the mystery of what caused the crash which killed 150 people.

The cockpit voice recorder was recovered yesterday and was taken to the laboratories of the French air investigation bureau, the BEA, at Le Bourget near Paris this morning. Although the recorder was damaged in the crash, preliminary examinations have been positive in the possibility of retrieving information. The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said whilst it had been damaged in the crash but was “usable”. 


According to radar logs, the aircraft was at a cruising altitude of 28,524 feet at 1029am, then at 1030 it had fallen to 26,453 and one minute later it had dropped to 24,380 feet. For the next 17 minutes, the A320 lost about 1,000 feet each a minute. This appears to be more a controlled rapid descent rather than an uncontrolled dive. The aircraft disappeared from radar soon after 10.48am and it is believed to have hit the mountain a few minutes later.

Ms Royal confirmed to media this morning that, soon after 10.30am, when the pilots had stopped responding by radio, the French military scrambled a Mirage jet fighter to intercept and investigate. According to local media, this French Forces jet was seen by eye-witnesses following the doomed airliner as it skimmed the Alpine ridges before crashing into a sheer mountain-side.  It's believed the Mirage pilot could have vital information on final moments of the stricken aircraft. 
Staff members of Germanwings and Lufthansa hold a candlelight vigil outside the headquarters of Germanwings in Cologne
















More to follow

24 March, 2015

Germanwings A320 Crashes

Breaking News

A Germanwings flight has crashed in the French alps this morning and its believed that all 148 passengers and crew have died.

The Airbus A320, operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline, has came down in the southern French Alps not far from Digne les Bains during its flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf.

Franch President Francois Hollande said there was likely to be "no survivors". The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the causes of the crash were not yet known.  "We of course don't know the reasons for the crash," he told reporters. "We obviously fear that the 142 to 150 passengers and crew died today, given the conditions of this crash."

The aircraft is believed to be 24 years old and took off at 0855 Zulu, climbed to its cruising altitude but at 0927 the aircraft started descend rapidly at 0945 the pilot sent a distress call before it crashed.   A total of 142 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew, were on board the plane.

This breaking news story is ongoing.

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