German flag carrier, Lufthansa, has a problem. It’s making healthy revenues, but high costs are seriously dragging down its profit margins, and various measures to cut some of its biggest expenses have been met with fierce resistance.
The airline has tried to slash pension costs for its pilot workforce, but they keep on going on strike over the issue. Lufthansa also wants to make cabin crew contracts more flexible and less costly, but again, the threat of highly damaging strike action can’t be ruled out.
Even Lufthansa’s previously successful but questionable but create lower-cost subsidiary airlines is now facing mounting resistance from frustrated workers who are unwilling to give up hard-fought-for collective bargaining agreements.
To make matters worse, just like every other airline, Lufthansa now has to deal with the spectre of the price of oil reaching $177 a barrel as the war in Iran is felt far and wide.
All of those elements might then explain why Lufthansa, while promising to become Europe’s most premium airline, has taken a leaf out of the operating handbook of budget rivals, with its latest cost-cutting idea… no longer cleaning planes on some short-haul flights.
As reported by the German aviation publication AEROtelegraph, Lufthansa has been running a trial in which only the Business Class cabin on a slew of short-haul routes to Germany will be cleaned, while the rest of the cabin, and even the bathrooms, will be ignored.
The trial is taking place on 20 routes between March 16 and March 29, but will only apply to flights returning to Germany during short turnarounds. The idea is not only to cut the turnaround time at outstations but also to see whether passengers will notice to such an extent that customer satisfaction levels are affected.
Lufthansa has described the trial as a “light cleaning” concept in which Business Class cabins receive a standard clean between flights, while the Economy cabin and bathrooms are only cleaned “on demand.”
Cleaners will be asked to conduct “spot cleaning” throughout the cabin, presumably to tidy up any big messes left behind by passengers, while the bathrooms will only get a wipe down if requested by the flight attendants.
The trial is looking at various concepts, including a plan to cut the number of cleaners from four to two. That plan could save a significant amount in costs, but requires the assigned cleaning time to be doubled from five to ten minutes: not ideal when short-haul turnaround times are already so tight.
This isn’t the first time that a supposed full-service ‘premium’ airline has attempted to emulate the cleaning routines of its low-cost rivals. In 2019, British Airways conducted a similar trial on one of its shortest routes, but the experiment was quickly abandoned after the airline suffered backlash from both customers and staff.
Low-cost airlines clearly have an advantage when it comes to optimizing their operations for speed, effiency and low-cost. Passengers know that cleanliness levels are something that might need to be sacrificed for cheap tickets and an on-time departure.
As much as airlines like British Airways and Lufthansa would love this to be the case for them as well, this isn’t how their businesses operate. If you are going to market yourself as a ‘premium’ airline, then the experience has to match that promise.
Who knows, though. Perhaps passengers won’t mind paying premium fares for a low-cost experience?
