Lufthansa, the largest European airline group, is giving a positive outlook on the 2014/2015 travel season for its business in the Middle East at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.

In 2013, more than 1,7 million guests, for the first time, have been welcomed onboard the group members Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines on the route network to and from the Middle East. This reflects a growth of more than 5 percent compared to the previous year.

All in all the Lufthansa Group offered flights to more than 104 million passengers in 2013.

The largest growth has been generated in the premium segment, especially in First and Business Class. In both compartments, Lufthansa has recently introduced new seats and services which have been greatly appreciated by its customers from the Middle East.

In one of largest retrofit programs in the industry, more than 7,000 Business Class seats are being installed on over 100 long-haul aircraft and therefore increasing the new Business Class availability to 100 percent by summer 2015.

The retrofit on First Class has been nearly concluded.

“The premium growth in the UAE has been impressive over the last months with more sales potential at the horizon. Our GCC passengers — being loyal to our group for more than 50 years — can be assured that Lufthansa will day by day improve the service that we are known for and take them to their destinations in utmost convenience and comfort“, said Karsten Zang, Lufthansa’s new General Manager UAE and Director Gulf and Pakistan since January this year.

“In addition to the even better network opportunities from the Middle East, Lufthansa committed itself to invest EUR 1million every day till 2015 in better ground and onboard services. New seats in all classes, individual inflight entertainment in Economy Class, innovative First Class and Business Class as well as brand new lounges, will help us define new industry standards and give us advantages over other carriers which fly different products on their route network.”

Looking at the Middle East, Lufthansa’s network will grow further.

With more than 140 weekly flights from 14 destinations — it is the largest program ever performed.

“We are looking back on more than 50 years of flying to the Middle East and right after the start of Lufthansa in 1955, this region became very important for being connected to Europe and America — building on this heritage is an important pillar of our services here. We will soon see more important milestones till we are celebrating 60 years of flying to the region,” Karsten Zang added.