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Celebrates success of Cairo route which helps bring more traffic between Germany and Egypt and offers additional travel opportunities for local travelers
Lufthansa today announced that Cairo has been made the regional headquarters for European airline group's sales organization for North Africa and the Near East. With the growing importance of the Egyptian market, the company has appointed a country manager for Egypt who will be based at the group's Cairo sales headquarters.
"Egypt remains one of our key markets in this region, always playing a significant role in Lufthansa's network. Now with Cairo becoming the regional headquarters, we are confident the entire Lufthansa Group will benefit from this market's leadership role across North Africa and the Middle East," said Frank Van den Steen, the Lufthansa Group's new Sales Director for North Africa & Near East.
Van den Steen, who previously led the company's sales organization in Tunisia for North Africa, Malta and Senegal, is optimistic about the growth of business across the entire region. In addition to Egypt, the new sales region includes Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and in the Near East: Jordan and Lebanon.
"North Africa is one of the Lufthansa Group's strongest growth markets, and with the Egyptian Tourism Authority reporting a 9% increase in travelers to Egypt in H1 2015 we are confident that we will be able to work together to ensure these encouraging figures continue to increase not only in Egypt, but across the area.
In addition to offering new travel opportunities into the Egyptian capital, Lufthansa provides its customers excellent flight connections to all corners of the globe. Our opening of a regional headquarters in Cairo is a sign of our commitment to the region and we plan to continue expanding services across the continent," noted Van den Steen.
With Cairo's popularity as both a leisure and business destination, Lufthansa successfully launched the Cairo - Munich route at the start of the 2015 summer season and operates four weekly flights in each direction between both cities. The route, complementing the daily Frankfurt service, offers excellent connections via Lufthansa's Bavarian hub Munich to Europe, North & South America and Asia.
"It is an exciting time for business in Egypt and with new plans from the Egyptian Tourism Authority to re-invigorate the country's tourism industry we look forward to working together to bring more tourists to Egypt, thus contributing to the country's tourism sector as well as expanding economic and business prospects,"said Zied Gueblaoui, Lufthansa's newly appointed Country Manager for Egypt.
The Cairo - Munich route operates four weekly flights, with flight LH 587 departing Cairo on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 02:10, landing at 06:10 in Munich. LH 586 departs Munich on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 21:25, landing at 01:10 the following day.
Munich, Europe's only 5-star airport according to Skytrax, is one of Europe's most popular and punctual airports. From its home in Terminal 2, Lufthansa offers business and leisure travellers from Egypt a global network this summer with over 200 destinations in 76 countries. Passengers from Cairo will find seamless connections throughout the entire Lufthansa network encompassing 11,000 of weekly flights to over 103 cities in 321 countries.
"Our passengers' convenience and comfort have always been paramount to us. More and more personalisation is being rolled out to provide our customers a complete and individualized travel experience from the time they book up until their arrival. And for 2015, our customers are enjoying full spectrum of new product offerings on board, with the latest in cabin design," said Tamur Goudarzi-Pour, Lufthansa Vice President Sales & Services for the Middle East, Africa & Southeast Europe.
Goudarzi-pour was in Cairo to bid farewell to the outgoing Director of Sales for Egypt, Gregor Wende who is retiring after 40 years of service for the airline.
Lufthansa is currently investing 1 million euros daily in on-board product enhancements with all new premium cabins' being retrofitted in Lufthansa's wide body fleet - encompassing over 100 aircraft.
The multiyear investment program will culminate in the fourth quarter of 2015 with a consistent product across the entire long haul fleet. The new First Class, Business Class and Premium Economy cabins have already garnered the excitement of Egyptian customers in the region flying through Lufthansa's German hubs and will soon be available on every wide-body aircraft in the fleet.
Additionally, the Lufthansa Group has undertaken its largest-ever fleet renewal program since its founding. Over 260 aircraft, valued at 36 billion euros (list price) will join the fleet in the next decade. This includes 34 Boeing 777-9x and 25 Airbus A350-900 wide body aircraft, the latter of which will enter into service next year.
It is the largest investment program of any German company and will allow the Frankfurt-based airline group an opportunity to continue enhancing its products and services globally
"This is truly an accomplishment for any airline. We thank our loyal customers, travel industry partners and employees in Egypt and across North Africa as well as Near East who assisted in building bridges that have fostered robust business and cultural ties between the Arab world and Germany, Switzerland and Austria," added Goudarzi - Pour.
In addition to Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Airlines and Austrian Airlines serve the Cairo as well as other cities across the region, offering the most comprehensive network of flights from Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich.
-Ends-
For information, please contact:
Sameh Selim, ASDA'A Burson Marsteller, sameh.selim@bm.com
Tal Muscal
Head of Group Communication
Middle East, Africa & Southeast Europe
Deutsche Lufthansa AG
Tel +49-151-589-32588
Email: tal.muscal@dlh.de
© Press Release 2015
