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Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/97 FLUG REVUE READERS RATE AIRLINES by Heiko Reuter How good or how bad is Lufthansa? Lufthansa is the best airline worldwide. At least according to a reader's survey of a German magazine for business travel. For the majority of the 4000 readers asked, Lufthansa has the top position in five categories: best airline worldwide, best airline of Europe, best airline to America, best business class on short and medium routes, as well as, best business class on long routes. This result moved the Lufthansa marketing strategists to talk big. Large-scale newspaper ads showed gold medals around a swimmer's neck. Underneath it, one could read: "5 times Gold. Only one was better: Mark Spitz, 1972". At the end of last year, we wanted to know from our readers what impressions the airlines had left on them. We asked the FLUG REVUE readers to evaluate the airlines which they had flown with last. All together, the airlines were to be judged in 23 categories. 8500 readers answered and the survey has been analyzed: For the FLUG REVUE readers who participated in the survey, Lufthansa is only in the midfield. Asian and Swiss airlines are ranging on the first places. Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Swissair and Crossair took alternate turns in first place in the categories "modern fleet", "offers maximum safety", "friendly cabin crew", and "very good in-flight service". For example "friendliness": While 93 percent of the FLUG REVUE readers who have flown lately with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific and 92 percent of the readers who have flown with Crossair attest to these three carriers as having a friendly cabin crew, only 55 percent of the readers said the same about Lufthansa. Only Alitalia, Iberia, and the permanent tailender Aeroflot did worse. Concerning the service quality on board, 96 percent of the readers who have flown with Crossair recently gave the Swiss regional carrier very good grades. Lauda Air is next (95 percent), followed by SIA (93 percent) and Cathay (also 93 percent). Lufthansa is ranging at the rank of twelfth (49 percent) which is even below Deutsche BA. The German airline is doing better in the category "safety". To 56 percent of the FLUG REVUE readers who participated in the survey, a Lufthansa-flight left the impression of offering maximum safety. Only Swissair did better in this category (63 percent). Tailenders in the safety category are Aeroflot (four percent) and Iberia (five percent). Also, Luft-hansa partner SAS (11 percent) and Eurowings, Germany's largest regional carrier (twelve percent), did not do well in this category. In the category "modern fleet", the Asian carriers are taking over the lead again. SIA (93 percent) and Cathay (89 percent) are in first and second place respectively. Lufthansa (79 percent) would get the Bronze medal in this category. Delta Airlines (33 percent) and Iberia (20 percent) are at the lower end of the scale. None of the readers wanted to attest to Aeroflot as having a modern fleet. However, there is a small group of indefatigables who think that the former Russian aerospace giant has a good reputation. Still, there is a wide gap between Swissair, which is leading the "image" category (74 percent) before Singapore Airlines (73 percent), and Aeroflot (four percent). Lufthansa was third (66 percent), followed by archrival British Airways (63 percent). The direct comparison of Lufthansa and British Airways shows the weak points of the German airline. Concerning friendliness of the cabin crew and in-flight service, British Airways, which had the image of a "slum in the air" in the eighties, has meanwhile beaten Lufthansa in these categories. The same applies to the categories "punctuality" (BA: 50 percent, LH: 42 percent) and "fast handling" (BA: 45 percent, LH: 35 percent) in which the British airline is one step ahead. Such images are created at the "frontier", at the direct interface between passenger and airline. Normally, this is the cabin or the check-in counter in the airport. It concerns how the airline is treating its passengers. The survey's results look like Lufthansa still has a problem in this area, in spite of all avowals of having a new service culture. From page 28 of FLUG REVUE 4/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 4/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated March 7, 1997