I know, I know. It’s yet another onboard wifi story, right? Lufthansa has started putting internet on its airplanes and expects to have it on its whole long haul flight by the end of 2011. So why is this interesting? A couple of reasons, actually. I do find it really interesting the way that Lufthansa is working to bring air and ground together in a couple of ways, including the introduction of CloudStream. Here’s the default CloudStream playlist.

Now, it’s no surprise that Lufthansa is the first to bring back real broadband internet over the oceans. Lufthansa was really aggressive at doing it when Boeing first launched Connexion back in the day. But then, Connexion shut down and Lufthansa just kept flying around with a bunch of sad, useless antennas. So when Panasonic resurrected a new effort at onboard satellite wifi, Lufthansa jumped at it, especially since it could use some of the hardware it was stuck with from before.

The first flights were up and running with wifi on December 1. Lufthansa is starting with Frankfurt to JFK, Detroit, and Atlanta. Yeah, I know. I wondered about Detroit as well, but it’s just because the A330 is the first airplane to get the service, so those routes get it first. If you’re flying on an A330 before January 31, it’s free so check it out.

But what’s different about this versus, say, the stuff you can get domestically. It uses the same satellite as Row 44 (the one Southwest is installing), but it’s also more robust. For example, Lufthansa will allow people to use GSM/GPRS to use their mobiles to text message and surf the web that way. For me, the most interesting thing about this is how Lufthansa is integrating it with the ground.

The service is being handled by Deutsche Telekom (better known as T-Mobile’s parent, here in the US). So it’s really like it’s just another hotspot. Because of that, you can pay using miles, roaming agreements, or just with a credit card. There are a ton of options.

The pricing seems a little screwy to me, however. You have two options – either one hour of service or 24 hours of service. The one hour option is €10.95 (~$14.50) or 3,500 miles while the 24 hour option is €19.95 (~$26.40) or 7,000 miles.

First of all, let’s all just agree that the mileage option is shockingly dumb. I mean, it’s not dumb for Lufthansa to offer it, but it’s really dumb if you as a passenger choose it. The return on that is right around 0.3 cents per mile. In a world where most people benchmark 2 cents per mile as a good place to start, this is really throwing your miles away. But then there are the two options.

For one hour, $15 seems mighty steep. I guess the idea is to try to upsell you to the higher plan, but maybe this will change after testing. Chances are, if you only want one hour on a long haul flight, you simply want to do an email upload/download to reconnect with the world. So they should do something like 30 minutes for €5 for that purpose and then just go with an all-you-can-eat for 24 hours plan.

That plan, by the way, seems to be priced fairly to me. If you’re on an 8 to 12 hour flight, $25 for internet the entire time is absolutely worthwhile. I know that if I flew on Lufthansa, that’s the plan I’d choose. But the really cool thing is how they connect this with the ground experience.

Since it’s run by Deutsche Telekom, the 24 hour period isn’t just for access on the airplane. You can also access on the ground in the lounge. Not sure if you can use your access at any hotspot run by the company, but if so that makes it even more valuable.

Lufthansa has also put together this thing called CloudStream which it calls a digital carry-on. The idea is that leading up to your trip, you can create a virtual briefcase of stuff you want to read. You know you’ve run into those 10 page articles in the Atlantic that you want to read but never have time. So Lufthansa lets you compile everything you want to read for your flight and then you can just call it up and start sifting through while onboard.

Sure, you could do this on your own by just saving a bunch of links in an email, but Lufthansa has put this together in a slick package that also lets you share with others and get content recommendations. If you’re on a long flight, it’s a great way to pass the time.

I give Lufthansa a lot of credit for really trying to integrate its wifi offering into everyday life. Now if they would only put powerports in coach. But that’s a whole different issue.

Let’s say you’re flying on a German airline and you’re riding in style up in business class. What would you like to see in the lounge before you go? That’s right, a German beer garden. And now you can. Lufthansa has installed a beer garden in its newly-refurbished Munich lounge, and I love it. They should roll this out to every lounge in the system.

When you’re flying Lufthansa, you’re expecting a German experience. I realize that beer halls are more of a Bavarian thing, so it makes sense it’s in Munich, but I’d like to see that kind of character in lounges all over. I want my airline’s personality to come out from my first interaction, and this certainly does that for Lufthansa.

It got me thinking, what should other airlines be doing with their lounges? Here are some thoughts on lounge design for just a few airlines out there.

• Aeroflot – vodka bar (preferably no flying pilots allowed)
• Air Canada – an igloo with Molson and hockey
• Air New Zealand – sheep farm
• Delta – huge veranda with mint juleps
• Emirates – made of solid gold
• Hawaiian – a lanai
• KLM – four words: red light district, pot
• Spirit – a cardboard box (extra fee for roof)
• TAM – Carnaval!
• Thai – I probably shouldn’t say this one out loud

 
Gimme some more in the comment section. I know you guys have ‘em lined up.

First Class is Disappearing in Name Only – BNET
Qantas is the latest to reduce First Class onboard, but it’s not really going away. It’s just changing names.

Premium Air Traffic Surpasses Previous Year for First Time Since 2008 – BNET
Yes, it’s true. More premium passengers flew in December than in last December. Granted, they were paying 20% less . . .

Airline Labor Unrest – Is This Catchy? – IAG Podcast
I sit down with Addison Schonland to talk strikes.

American and United Switch to Small Planes for Big Routes – BNET
American is shifting its 70 seaters to compete with United’s 70 seaters. Go figure.

End of the Affair: Are American and Alaska Set to Compete? – BNET
It’s only one little route addition, but I tend to think it could mean big things.

High Speed Rail May Hurt Airports, But How Much? – BNET
High speed rail is coming to California, and the aviation world is gearing up to fight it. Boo, I say.

Ah, spring. The days become longer, the temps get warmer, and, apparently, it’s a great time for airline strikes. Lufthansa pilots just struck for a day and postponed the rest for later. Meanwhile, British Airways is on deck as the French air traffic controllers wreak havoc in their own country. And don’t worry, Alitalia has struck in the last week as well, of course. What the heck is going on here?

With Lufthansa, the pilots aren’t happy so they walked out yesterday. That left the airline canceling about half their daily flights and plenty of passengers stuck going nowhere. Last night, the pilots agreed to suspend their strike until March 8 so they could rejoin talks. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Lufthansa will magically start operating at full speed today. It takes a little while to get everything back into place for a normal operation, so check with the airline if you’re flying.

As for British Airways, well, we’ve talked about this one before. Remember that the BA flight attendants were going to strike over Christmas but then the courts told them to screw off because of some voting irregularities. Well, they’re back and now with a new vote showing 83 percent support, the strike could come with only a week’s notice. At least they’re promising it won’t disrupt Easter flying. Not sure why Christmas was ok but Easter isn’t, but I’m not complaining.

The French air traffic controllers? They’ve been on strike this week and have hurt a lot of the air traffic running through the country. For example, Air France has announced that today it will operate all its long haul flights but only 75 percent of European flights will operate from Paris/de Gaulle with only 50 percent from Orly.

Why do we keep seeing all these strikes? Well it’s more of the same. It’s usually an issue of job retention, outsourcing, and of course, pay. The problem is that the industry today is not what it was 30 years ago when pay was high and so were fares. Some airlines have been able to adapt but none have done so without serious pain for most involved (except of course, those insanely-misguided CEOs who think that taking a big bonus in the face of all this pain is a good idea).

What we’re seeing now, however, is two different types of unions based on how they react. The labor unions that realize that this is unfortunately a necessary change will be in better shape because they can participate in the discussion and work to find ways to help reduce costs with the least amount of pain to their members. Those unions that simply want to strike if they don’t get everything they want, no matter how delusional, will end up watching from the outside as the industry changes without their participation.

As a result, customers end up suffering, of course. If your flight is canceled because of a strike, then I would just cancel and rebook at a later date if you can. If you need to be there, well, you can look at other airlines but they will be bursting at the seams trying to accommodate everyone. Just remember that a strike doesn’t mean the airline shuts down. Most airlines are able to get together enough of a skeleton crew to operate at least some flights, as Lufthansa showed by operating half theirs. But running only half your flights is still a recipe for lots of stuck travelers.

Oh, and Alitalia? Well it’s hardly worth mentioning, but they struck on February 16. Ho, hum. Nothing to see here.

[Original Photo via Steinsky on Wikipedia]

After a few months of hemming and hawing, Lufthansa has finally started to make its mark on bmi. The airline announced a big restructuring that will involve cutting routes, moving airplanes around, and just generally aligning itself better with the growing Lufthansa empire.

When Lufthansa took control of bmi thanks to a previous agreement that made them pay a ton of money for the airline, the first plan was to sell it off. After it became apparent that they weren’t going to get the price they wanted (or even close to what they paid), they announced on November 2 that they would just try to get bmi into better shape on their own. It took them less than a month to bring out their plans.

This map was recently released showing what’s in store:

Oh wait, nevermind. That map’s about 70 years old, and as I recall, it didn’t work out so well for the Germans then. Of course, this version of Lufthansa didn’t exist back then, and their plans are actually far less, um, aggressive. As a reminder, there is bmi, which operates mainline aircraft out of London/Heathrow, and bmi regional which flies regional jets from other UK airports.

• bmi will go down from 39 to 30 airplanes. The fleet will now be made up of mostly A320 family aircraft with three Embraer 145s, a single A330, and a single 757. It wouldn’t surprise me to see those go away when the leases expire.




• bmi regional will see its number of regional jets rise from 15 to 17 thanks to bmi’s decision to send two back to bmi regional. bmi regional is looking to get rid of 3 of those airplanes, but nothing has happened yet.




• Flights from Heathrow to Brussels, Tel Aviv, Kiev, and Aleppo will end in January, but those cities will continue to be served by other Star alliance carriers via connections. The Brussels flights will instead operate under a codeshare with Brussels Airlines, another Lufthansa-owned airline.




• Flights from Heathrow to Amsterdam will go away in March.




• Seasonal runs from Heathrow to Venice and Palma won’t be coming back.

This is a pretty big cut in terms of aircraft flying, and that means that there will be plenty of unused Heathrow slots. Where will those go? Will they sell them off? Or will another Lufthansa-owned carrier pick up the slack? It will be very interesting to see what they do with those.

bmi’s strategy doesn’t look much different to me. They will continue to focus on Europe and the Middle East as they’ve been doing, but they’ll just have fewer airplanes doing it. There doesn’t appear to be any interest in London-US flying, so instead they’ll just look at how they can make bmi best fit into the Lufthansa puzzle.