Lufthansa German Airlines has ended its Denver-Munich nonstop service and does not intend to resume the flights next spring as it had expected to do.
“It’s not a flight that gives us enough revenue and benefits to keep it going,” said Lufthansa spokesman Martin Riecken. The last Denver-Munich flight was Friday.
Lufthansa will continue to operate its daily nonstop service between Denver International Airport and Frankfurt.
Officials from DIA and the Denver-area business community had long courted Luft hansa for the Munich flight, and they helped get the service started in March 2007 with $2 million in incentives.
Sally Covington, DIA’s deputy manager for marketing, said the airport offered Lufthansa marketing support for the Munich flight and a break on landing fees, and the airline met its obligation under the airport’s incentive package by operating the route for at least a year.
The Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. also contributed to the incentive package.
Riecken said the airline will reimburse a portion of the incentive amount because of the shutdown of the Munich route.
“We’re disappointed, of course,” Covington said of Lufthansa’s decision to end the Munich flight, “but we understand economic conditions.”
“We still believe we have a business case to make for an additional gateway to Europe,” Covington added, noting that DIA will continue to work with Lufthansa to reinstate the Munich flight or, alternately, try to win nonstop service from DIA to Paris or Amsterdam, Netherlands.
DIA also will pursue the possibility of getting one-stop service to mainland Europe from Denver on Icelandair through Reykjavik, Iceland, Covington said.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
