Summary
- Lufthansa began Munich-Seattle on May 31, 2024.
- Frankfurt-Minneapolis started on June 4, followed by Frankfurt-Raleigh Durham on June 6.
- It is the first time that Raleigh Durham has had non-stop flights to Germany.
It is rare for an airline to begin multiple new long-haul routes in quick succession, and it’s even rarer if they’re to one country. But Lufthansa did just that in the week ending June 6, when a trio of US routes began for the first time.
May 31: Munich to Seattle
Over the years, the 4,439 nautical mile (8,222 km) airport pair has had very little non-stop service. That’s not surprising: the point-to-point market is small (~24,000 roundtrip passengers in 2023), and for connections, Lufthansa has served Seattle from Frankfurt, its busiest hub, for years. German leisure airline Condor flew Munich-Seattle in 2017, but it was unserved until Lufthansa launched it on May 31.
Seattle is one of eight US destinations served from both Lufthansa’s hubs this summer.
Photo: Joe Kunzler | Simple Flying
Munich-Seattle runs three times weekly year-round on the Airbus A350-900. In the summer, the Pacific Northwest airport is one of 11 US airports Lufthansa serves from its Bavarian hub. It joins Boston, Charlotte, Chicago O’Hare, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, New York JFK, San Diego (started in March 2022), San Francisco, and Washington Dulles (which has just switched to the A380).
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June 4: Frankfurt to Minneapolis
The 3,817 nautical mile (7,070 km) market now has not one but two German airlines. Lufthansa’s June 4 launch joins Condor, once very close to Lufthansa, which has served Minneapolis since 2014.
Lufthansa runs five times weekly with the Boeing 787-9 (four weekly in the winter), while Condor’s summer-only service is three times weekly on the A330-900. The last US airline to serve Minneapolis-Frankfurt was Northwest in 1996 using the DC-10. Note that Aer Lingus resumed Dublin-Minneapolis in April 2024, followed by Air France from Paris CDG in May.
Photo: Lufthansa
While Minneapolis is Delta’s second-largest hub by flights after Atlanta, Lufthansa’s launch is not about this. It is, of course, to feed its own global flights over Frankfurt.
Booking data shows that around 900,000 people flew between Minneapolis and Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia last year (~1,233 passengers daily each way). Minnesota appears to be of growing interest to Europeans, presumably for the big outdoors and perhaps the country’s largest mall. Lufthansa will gain a proportion of that large market.
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June 6: Frankfurt to Raleigh Durham
Raleigh Durham is on a roll: it has gained three European airlines in about two years. Lufthansa’s June 2024 launch from Frankfurt joins Air France, which replaced Delta from Paris CDG in October 2023, and Icelandair from Keflavik in May 2022. Who knows? When Aer Lingus’ Airbus A321XLRs finally arrive, it may launch Dublin-Raleigh Durham flights.
Frankfurt-Raleigh Durham operates five times weekly on the A330-300, reduced to three times weekly in the winter. Flights depart from Germany at 10:20, during Lufthansa’s peak US departure bank from its busiest hub, and get back at 06:05+1, the largest US arrivals bank. As such, the North Carolina airport has vast numbers of two-way connections via Frankfurt, precisely as you’d expect.
Where else would you like Lufthansa to fly in the US? Let us know in the comments section.