Bianchi Group were chosen as General Sales Agents and local staff recruited. In just one year, frequency was doubled and two years later increased to four. German Industry in Malta was at the time undergoing fast development with several well known companies setting up shop; names like Manrad, Rodenstock, Merit, Brandstaetter, Med Wear, Mac Manoel, Imperial Products and many others, whose executives required more frequent connections.
Under the energetic Hans Georg Schiedel flights were increased to 5 weekly on 31st March 1993 operated by A320. Shortly after Lufthansa German Airlines became a registered company in Malta and set up its own independent organisation at the newly inaugurated Malta International Airport. This also saw the setting up of Lufthansa Cargo as a new company within the group operating its own freighter service to Malta.
Big challenges lay ahead for the ever-popular Ulrich Sterzik who built a new team to manage the daily service operated by brand new fleet of A319 to Frankfurt, which commenced on the 31st March 1994.
The airline had in the meantime developed its role in the Maltese market: from a European to a world carrier where passengers were using Frankfurt, Lufthansa’s main hub, for intercontinental connections.
This was also a time when demand was increased taking advantage of Malta geographical position vis-à-vis the Libya air embargo where expatriates working in the North African country travelled by sea to Malta to catch onward connections to far flung places like Canada and the Philippines. Lufthansa was able to fulfil this demand.
Carsten Bomelburg as General Manager brought in state of the art technology with introduction of own check-in system and E-Tix. Lufthansa being the first carrier to introduce electronic ticketing in Malta in March 2002. Capacity was also increased to A321 or A300-600 depending on demand.
Indeed, today, Lufthansa’s role has again changed as the past 20 years saw a growing affluence of the Maltese and their desire to venture further afield.
The route is no longer dependent on the German tourism market, which is duly serviced by affiliated company Thomas Cook / Condor AG, but caters for the demanding business man who may require a same day connection to New York as well as the leisure traveller seeking the delights of Miami, visiting family in Toronto or even exploring the oriental culture of Beijing.
Lufthansa with its 220 destinations in 96 countries together with Star Alliance with over 800 destinations has made the world the proverbial oyster ready to be enjoyed.
Lufthansa recovers after years of world-wide economic crisis.
The global market is undergoing enormous changes in aviation : liberalisation in Europe resulted in price drops, new low cost carriers are now an established fact. State owned airlines had to privatise or risk extinction.
Lufthansa had to face dramatic transformation in the early ‘90s but happily enough the tough cost cutting and restructuring programmes helped transform the formerly state owned national carrier into a successful 100% private enterprise.
This process took years and mind-boggling strategies to achieve not to say that in the meantime the industry faced several crisis situations consequent to Sept. 11th and SARS.
The traffic figures of 2003 prove a positive trend with a stable seat load factor of 73% and 44.4 million passengers carried. Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Chairman of the Board of the Lufthansa Group is looking at 2004 with renewed confidence as Financial Results approach at the end of March.
2004 presents two major strategic targets : to further monitor and cut costs and secondly to invest in the product and its technical development. Lufthansa has always been the pioneer in high technology. The introduction of electronic ticketing and check-in four years ago, the launch of Internet on Board last year and the brand new Business Class on long haul flights are such examples.
Time Flies – Links Strengthen
Passengers carried on Lufthansa between Frankfurt and Malta has increased steadily in these 20 years from a few hundreds in 1984 to over 50,000 in 2003. Figures which speak for themselves.
Another landmark in Lufthansa’s relationship with Malta was in January 2003 with the setting up of a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik AG and Air Malta namely Lufthansa Technik, Malta with a staff compliment of 100.
Valdis Dombrovskis, the newly appointed General Manager, Lufthansa German Airlines, Malta and his Team feel proud to meet the challenge that Malta’s access on to the European Union will bring.
He is confident that Lufthansa’s role in Malta, as a leading European carrier with a global dimension, will continue to flourish. Lufthansa welcomes Malta to Europe!
Lufthansa has supported several cultural events to mark this anniversary. Next on the programme is on the 1st April 2004 with a Piano Recital at the Manoel Theatre by Dr Anne Borg Biegel, senior lecturer at the Saarbrucken Conservatory in Germany.