Lufthansa plans to increase Dubai flight capacity

Bosses at major German airline Lufthansa have hinted that the company could increase the capacity of its services between Europe and Dubai.The UAE is an increasingly popular tourism destination and is also an international business hub, so it is hardly surprising that the demand for flights to the Gulf has risen sharply among the German population.Carsten Schaeffer, Lufthansa's vice president of sales and services for south-east Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the company plans to up the volume of services to Dubai by 20 per cent this summer.He told the Khaleej Times that the extra flights will most probably leave from Frankfurt – which is one of the busiest airports in the world.”We might fly double-daily from Frankfurt to Dubai. So this is really a step up [in] the way we work,” Mr Schaeffer was quoted as saying.”In the UAE, we are in the phase of bringing in bigger aircraft and in Saudi Arabia, we are bringing in more frequencies.”He added that the Middle East is an important market and the firm's network will expand in this part of the world in the coming years.Lufthansa currently flies to Dubai from Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna, while Emirates Airline – which is based in the UAE city – travels to four destinations in Germany.Dubai International Airport has grown in stature in recent years and is now the second busiest aviation hub on earth. Much of this rapid improvement has been down to the increasing number of European routes being added by UAE-based airlines.Indeed, Dubai Airports revealed last month that the biggest upturn in passenger numbers in March came from western Europe, as Emirates and flydubai introduced new services.There was also a 67.9 per cent rise in traffic from eastern Europe year-on-year during the month, thanks mainly to newly-established links to places like Poland and Macedonia. With the likes of Lufthansa planning to increase their presence in the UAE, it seems to be just a matter of time before Dubai International overtakes London's Heathrow as the busiest airport in the world. Taylor Scott International