Shannon Airport has announced that its first ever scheduled Lufthansa service is to have its capacity doubled this year with a second weekly service to Frankfurt.
The service will now operate to Frankfurt on Thursdays and Saturdays, with the outbound leg on Thursdays arriving in Frankfurt in time to meet onward connections at one of Europe’s largest airport hubs.
The service will operate weekly using an Embraer190 aircraft on Thursdays and an Airbus A319 on Saturdays and will run from the May 2 to October 12, 2019.
Commenting on the enhanced commitment, Andreas Koester, Senior Director Sales UK, Ireland & Iceland said:
“Testament to the demand for our services in this important market, we are delighted to be able to double our capacity on the Shannon-Frankfurt route. At Lufthansa, we pride ourselves on delivering high levels of customer satisfaction.
This additional capacity enables us to offer even greater options for onward outbound connections through Europe and long haul destinations to Asia, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg, with the inbound flight offering a more seamless journey from the North Atlantic. We look forward to building on this success to further expand our footprint in Ireland.
Welcoming the announcement, Shannon Airport Managing Director Andrew Murphy said:
"Lufthansa, which is one of Europe’s biggest airlines, came on board with this service in 2017 and would not be doubling frequency unless the demand was there.
"Having Lufthansa commit with this second weekly service across the summer season is very encouraging from that perspective
"We have worked very hard on this, as we do with all our services, and are really pleased to be making this gain.”
In addition to the outbound opportunities for onward connections and, indeed, the opportunity this gives eastern markets to fly with one-stop connectivity into Shannon, the German market is the third largest tourism market for Ireland.
"As the gateway airport to the Wild Atlantic Way, we offer direct access for that market to the part of the country that resonates the most with them.