PRIVATAIR

The departure time from Düsseldorf was 10:00 AM CET, with arrival at Newark at 12:30 PM EST, the same day. In the other direction, passengers departed Newark at 4:40 PM and arrived at Düsseldorf at 6:15 AM, the next morning. With these timings, passengers had available to them a good range of connecting flights at both ends of the route.

Under a wet-lease agreement (where the lease arrangement can cover an aircraft together with jet fuel and crew personnel) with Lufthansa, PrivatAir provided both the aircraft and the crew for this service: two flight-deck crew and four cabin crew. The 48-seat Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), based on a B737-700, offered an all-business-class seat configuration: 2+2 in 12 passenger rows. At some legacy airlines, restrictive labour practices might prohibit wet-lease agreements of the Lufthansa/PrivatAir type for a regular scheduled service.

At the time of the launch, Aage Duenhaupt, Manager, International Communications, at Lufthansa Technik, AG, explained the floor-plan layout: ‘The BE Aerospace cradle-type seats are configured at 55-inch (1.39 metre) pitch and recline to 145 degrees. The seat width is 19.7 inches (50.03 centimetres), and there is head and neck support, plus an adjustable footrest. There are three lavatories, one in the front of the cabin and two at the back. And so that guests are not disturbed while flight attendants are working in the aft galley, we have positioned a movable class divider behind Row 12.’ (Readers might wish to view classic narrow-body floor plans displayed in the Timetables/Configurations Picture Gallery attached to Chapter 4/Aero Identity.) 

For inflight entertainment, each passenger was offered a Sony Personal Video Watchman. As in the Lufthansa First Class cabins, passengers could create their own entertainment programmes, drawing from 15 movie titles, in up to 15 different languages, plus a range of music tapes.

STYLE

The decor scheme was carefully calibrated to ensure a professional ambience, suitable for travelling business executives. The main colours were deep blue and beige, with white accessories. The overall effect was streamlined and non-fussy — a successful formula given the constraints of a single-aisle aircraft. For example, the seat covers were dark-blue leather (not unlike the colour of those that used to fly on the all-one-class Delta Shuttle or the British Airways Concorde (as shown near the beginning of the Concorde Unique Case Study attached to Chapter 4/Aero Identity). On each seat there was a classic white Lufthansa headrest cover, two white Lufthansa pillows and a blue Lufthansa blanket. The walls were light grey and the curtains and carpet were beige. The unusual striped pattern on the carpet added a dash of character and individuality to the overall design scheme and drew attention to the aisle, helping to give an impression of greater length and spaciousness.

MEALS

When meals were served, passengers opened the tray-tables that were stowed in the armrest area of their seats. In addition to the scheduled meal service, passengers could ask to be served individually, at a time of their choosing. Special meals could be ordered in advance, when the flight reservations were made.

FARES

No special surcharge was added to the fare. This exclusive business-class service was fully comparable to the business-class fares offered by Lufthansa on its mainline services.

BAGGAGE ALLOWANCE

The baggage allowance was comparable to the usual Lufthansa business-class service on the airline’s wide-body Airbus A340 aircraft: 66.14 pounds (30 kilograms) of checked baggage and two pieces of hand luggage. ‘It’s no problem waiting for your suitcase when there are only 47 other BBJ guests with you at the baggage carousel!’ said Duenhaupt.

THE LOCKED-IN BBJ

The PrivatAir BBJ unit that was locked into the Düsseldorf-Newark route was not equipped with sky phones, power-supply outlets for laptop computers, conference tables, bars, business work stations, fax machines or shower baths — even though these features were provided at the time by Lufthansa Technik for other VIP-BBJ programmes.

At a time when airline passengers were looking for more choices, the Lufthansa PrivatAir development, which blurred the traditional boundaries between charter and scheduled operations, was regarded as an attractive new option.

A number of gloomy observers opined that by offering this new service, Lufthansa might deprive itself of high-yield business traffic on its mainline services. They pointed to the fact that, many years earlier, the plans for the dedicated luxury MGM service on certain US domestic routes did not work out. But the context is different today: airports have become much more of a problem to negotiate as a result of post-11 September 2001 security requirements. Pushing through the huge crowds of people who are boarding, or disembarking from, an array of twin-aisle aircraft can be bad news for anyone’s blood-pressure reading!

The Lufthansa PrivatAir specialist operation was greatly appreciated by business executives: being the bread and butter of the airline world, they deserve as much ingenuity as aviation marketing managements can muster.