Lufthansa: more flights to Kuala Lumpur and back to Jakarta

BANGKOK - For a decade now, German national carrier Lufthansa has been flying to Kuala Lumpur from Munich and then from Frankfurt. But the flight was always with a short stop-over in Bangkok. This will change from March 30 of this year when Lufthansa will launch a new route, decoupling Bangkok from Kuala Lumpur and going back to Jakarta. While Bangkok will now be served by an exclusive non-stop flight in an Airbus A340-600 on a daily basis out of Frankfurt, five weekly non-stop flights will from March serve the Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur route and being extended to Jakarta.

Surprisingly, Lufthansa pulled out from the Indonesian capital less than two years ago. At the end of 2012, the carrier then unplugged its Munich-Singapore-Jakarta three-time weekly service, blaming poor yields. The strong growth of the air travel market to and from Indonesia gave way to reconsider the decision…

Lufthansa will serve Kuala Lumpur/Jakarta five times on an Airbus A340-600, offering a three-class configuration with eight seats in first class, 48 in business, and 270 seats in economy.

However, they are some bad news to the Asian market. Lufthansa will terminate its flight to Ho Chi Minh City, also served through Bangkok.

Lufthansa Jakarta service is coming at a time of increasing interest from European airlines to serve Indonesia, considered as one of the fastest growing markets in the world for air services. Air France is due to open this summer a daily flight via Singapore from Paris while Garuda Indonesia is also planning a three times weekly flight to London Gatwick. They are also rumours mentioning the possible return of British Airways to the Indonesian capital via Singapore or eventually Kuala Lumpur. Until today, KLM is the only European carrier serving Jakarta, also with a stop-over in Kuala Lumpur.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews