Lufthansa has commenced a new twice-weekly service from Cork Airport to Frankfurt.
The new service, operated by Lufthansa’s CityLine rand, will operate on Mondays and Fridays. The route will be served with a Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft with 75 seats on board - 15 Business Class and 60 Economy Class.
The flight will depart Frankfurt Airport at 15.40 local time, arriving into Cork Airport at 16.45. The return flight will depart Cork at 17.25 landing in Frankfurt at 20.30 local time, a flight time of two hours and five minutes. Lufthansa joins other major European flag carriers - KLM, SWISS and Air France as well as home carriers Aer Lingus and Ryanair, operating from Cork Airport this summer.
Headquartered in Frankfurt, Lufthansa is one of the largest airlines in Europe and also owns SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. The carrier operates an extensive network of regional services within Germany and Europe as well as the Asia Pacific, Middle East, North America, South America and Africa via primary hubs at Frankfurt and Munich airports. Lufthansa utilises a large fleet of narrow and wide-body aircraft, as well as regional jet aircraft. A publicly listed company, Lufthansa is a founding member of Star Alliance.
Yesterday's announcement concludes intensive efforts made by the Cork Airport team to bring the German flag carrier to Cork in recent years. This new Lufthansa operation will complement the existing SWISS International Airlines service, with both airlines offering seamless connectivity through their Lufthansa Group Hubs at Frankfurt and Zurich respectively.
Brian Gallagher, head of aviation and commercial business development at Cork Airport said;
'These are challenging times for aviation globally, so it is great to see Lufthansa take off from Cork Airport this summer connecting Cork with Frankfurt for the first time in eighteen years. We have worked long and hard over many years to secure connectivity to Frankfurt and beyond with Lufthansa to help support businesses and internationally trading companies across the South of Ireland region. It is great to see all this work come to fruition and secure further international connectivity to another major European hub airport.’'
Speaking on the launch of the new Cork-Frankfurt service for 2021, Andreas Koester, senior director Sales UK, Ireland and Iceland for the Lufthansa Group, said;
'After 18 years, we are proud to see Lufthansa operating once again at Cork Airport. Just in time for summer, this new Cork-Frankfurt connection compliments our flights from Cork to Zurich with SWISS, emphasizing the importance of Ireland within our network. Furthermore, with this additional connection, we are looking forward to offering our customers even more travel options within our worldwide, multi-hub system. As one of the largest carriers in Europe, with just a short stopover in Frankfurt, our customers will have access to hundreds of connections to numerous destinations within our vast, global network.'
