There are few things as emotional as the naming of an aircraft, especially when it’s named after your hometown.
This special honour was this week bestowed by Lufthansa when it named its newest A380, which winged its way on a scenic flight to Cape Town, with a special low pass over Table Mountain and along the Cape Peninsula, carrying over 300 dignitaries, travel trade colleagues and media.
The naming of one of the flagship A380s after the city of Johannesburg is not surprising as the airline’s executives highlight the importance of the continent to Lufthansa’s growth strategy. “We are investing heavily in South Africa and the African continent and predict that, until 2025, we will continue to see at least 6% growth in these markets,” Kay Kratky, Lufthansa board member told delegates at a gala ceremony to christen the aircraft at OR Tambo International Airport.
The airline, he said, with its Star Alliance partner SAA, codeshares on more than three-dozen routes in southern Africa and Europe. “This means there are at least 274 flights a week to at least 40 African destinations.”
In addition to the tremendous growth seen in South Africa, Joachim Steinbach, Vice President of Lufthansa in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Europe, said destinations like Libreville, Pointe Noire and Port Harcourt in west Africa had been added to the airline’s route network, while east and north Africa were served by Lufthansa’s Star Alliance partners, Ethiopian Airlines and EgyptAir respectively. Our target is to deploy two new aircraft into the African market every year which is by far above average in any other market.”
From a product perspective, Lufthansa will launch its long-haul business class, which will include a new fully flat bed, on its B747-800s at the end of the year. Currently the business-class seat on Lufthansa’s A380 has a 168 degree recline.
In its Lufthansa configuration, the A380 has 526 seats, comprising 420 newly developed economy-class seats offering an additional 5cm of personal space and 15% additional living space, 98 business-class seats and eight first-class seats.
‘The Johannesburg’ carries Lufthansa's new first-class product: a 2,07m-long, 80cm-wide seat in what is being dubbed the quietest cabin in the sky, with sound absorbing curtains to partition off the rest of the cabin, special carpeting to block the sound of footsteps and special sound insulating material around the fuselage.
Johannesburg became Lufthansa's third A380 destination in September 2010 after Tokyo and Beijing.
