Lufthansa’s crazy 11hour A319 route!

Real World Aviation
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Lufthansa has recently announced a new route from Frankfurt to pune, India. This route will be served by Lufthansa’s A319 it’ll be 11 hours and 25 mins long! A319 has a range of 3,750 NM while the route is 4159 NM long, thus the plane has to stop in Baku, Azerbaijan but the passengers won’t be allowed to disembark the plane. Originally Lufthansa offered this route with their partner privatAir, It was served by an 737-700, which is small but still had the ability to create a monopoly on that route! Ever since they partnership ended they have been looking for a new airline to partner with and under pressure from large German firms that want direct flights they have resumed the services by themselves.

Pune is actually a very popular destination for German business travelers. Pune has several German automobile manufacturing plants along with IT firms. The city is home to several colleges as well and Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes are buried in the grand Aga khan palace gardens.

In conclusion this is a very smart move… this route won’t take much time to generate profits and be a monopoly. Let me know your thoughts down below!

Source - https://simpleflying.com/lufthansa-frankfurt-to-pune-a319/

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Man that’s crazy!!

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I would not want to fly that route. The Seats are just too thin for that long a flight.

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I do not think I could last that long in an A319…

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Yeah i do believe that using an A319 for such a long route is a little extreme.

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Oh lord, I couldn’t sit on a European Configured Airplane for 3 hours, much less 11.

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Agreed they need a 330 at least

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I think low demand caused them to use a smaller plane. That’s why they have to stop somewhere (I think Baku) in order to refuel and then continue on.

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Some airlines across Asia use the A321… maybe that could’ve been a better option?

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11+ hours in a A319… Gosh that must be painful.

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I don’t think low demand is an problem… as they’ve technically been forced by big firms to reopen that route.

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Considering Qatar used to use their long haul fleets on the 30 minute flights to Dubai, I really think Lufthansa could do better than using such a small aircraft on such a long route. Not great for a five star airline given the inability to provide a hard product for passengers to enjoy. Their business, economy product won’t be good for anything more than short haul operations FACT.

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The article says that Lufthansa were looking for a airline to partner with on this route… they obviously didn’t find one… and them using the A319 is probably a sign that they didn’t want to open this route but they had no other option hence they just went with the A319… this is just my view on this.

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Might be better to fly the route less often with a bigger aircraft as to still be able to serve those passengers

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Yeah.

This high demand route should AT LEAST get a A330, or some other plane, on at least one day a week, I completely agree with @Guxk.

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based on the article, The only problem is that the airport in Pune (PNQ) does not have a long enough runway to support widebody aircraft, so any planes inbound must be only lighter single aisle narrow body.

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Yeah that’s why I said that the A321 would’ve been a. Better option

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it depends on the runway lenght. if it’s too short, neither A320 or A321 can’t take off or land with full Passengers

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Also runways 10/28 are 8319 feet long… A330 only requires 7K

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I think a larger aircraft would suit this route much better, like an A330 or A340.

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