Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr wants to set up a kind of "Cityline clone" for short and medium-haul flights from Frankfurt am Main and Munich. During the press conference about the annual figures, he gave more details on the project.
Spohr explained, among other things, that the new company should start in spring 2022 with around 40 aircraft. The "Cityline clone" is to employ around 250 captains who previously flew for Germanwings. However, he explicitly rules out that this will result in Lufthansa itself only serving long-haul flights. Spohr expressly emphasized that the Mainline will continue to fly on short and medium-haul routes.
The reason why a new flight operation was founded again after Eurowings Discover is interesting. This is really blamed on the trade unions, because no agreement could be reached with the Cockpit Association, for example. The segment would be under severe cost pressure. And then Spohr also said that the scope clause, which was agreed with the VC, means that Cityline will not be allowed to operate aircraft with more than 2026 seats from 76. We want to offer the employees a perspective.
In other words, it is unclear what the future holds for Lufthansa Cityline, but it now serves as a platform for Airbus A321P2F cargo flights. Thus, there is at least the theoretical possibility that this subsidiary will move more towards cargo in the future. Machines with fewer than 76 seats are now considered uneconomical.
With regard to the payment for the new company, Cityline comes into play again, because Spohr wants to apply the collective agreements of this company. The Germanwings employees are excluded from this, because according to Spohr they should keep their previous wage conditions. The Lufthansa CEO emphasized that the new Lufthansa airline should be “a kind of city line”.