Flying high: carrier bucks trend

BUCKING the recessionary trend, Manchester’s Lufthansa operation is growing its business at what UK general manager Marianne Sammann calls a fantastic rate.

Manchester International Airport, partly owned by Oldham Council, is the German carrier’s second biggest UK operation after London in terms of passengers and flights.

Since November, passenger numbers on its Manchester-Munich service have risen month-on-month to 21 per cent rise in January. February’s Munich figures have shown a slowdown but remain 3 per cent higher than this time last year.

During a visit to Oldham and in an exclusive interview with Chronicle Business, Ms Sammann said: “We are definitely seeing increasing trends in travel behaviour. We are carefully optimistic that demand for international is coming back.”

Ms Sammann revealed that Lufthansa is adding a new route to its Manchester operations, with direct flights to Stuttgart starting this month.

It will have a Monday-Friday operation and complement the carrier’s programme of daily flights to Munich, Frankfurt and the mini-hub at Dusseldorf.

Sixty-three per cent of passengers on Lufthansa flights out of Manchester connect into hubs, with the airline experiencing a 140 per cent growth in onward flights to the Middle East, a 30 per cent rise in connections to North America and single-digit rise in the Asian market, mainly India and China.


Lufthansa has been named Best Airline Worldwide in the Business Travel Awards 2010. A combination of the long-standing Business Travel World Awards and the prestigious Buying Business Travel Diamond Awards, which have been recognising industry success for the past five years, these are the most coveted in the industry.


Lufthansa has moved its Manchester passenger operation back to Level Five of Terminal One. The return from a temporary home in the ground level check-in area offers quicker and easier access for passengers with shorter walking distances.