Lufthansa's Privat-business

摘要

Lufthansa's recent launch of a six-times- weekly, all-business-class service between Diisseldorf and Newark using a Boeing BBJ operated via wet lease represents the boldest step yet among network airlines looking for new ways to satisfy an increasingly demanding―and disappearing―business traveler. Lufthansa scratched its own daily Duesseldorf-Newark A340 service last fall after demand plummeted in the wake of Sept. 11, leaving a gap that it says the active business community on both sides of the Adantic demanded be filled. The BBJ, a 737-700 with blended winglets and extra fuel tanks, is owned by and operated in the livery of VIP travel specialist Pri-vatAir Group, which holds both 180-min. ETOPS and FAR 129 foreign carrier approval for transoceanic routes. With headquarters in Geneva and Stratford, Conn., Pri-vatAir also has a fixed-base operation at Paris Le Bourget. Its fleet of 50 aircraft ranges in size from a Beech King Air to an executive 757 operating out of Europe and 16 bases throughout the US.