SAXONY WILL NO LONGER have a direct link with London when Lufthansa withdraws its service from the start of next summer’s schedule. Lufthansa plans to drop the non-stop service from the end of March, 2012.
A Lufthansa spokesperson cited unprofitability for the decision. The carrier claims almost all passengers were travelling in economy class rather than on more lucrative business class tickets.
The London-Dresden route has had a chequered history. British Airways inaugurated a daily B737 flight from London Gatwick in 2007 but withdrew it the following year.
In 2010 Bmi began flying with an A319 from Heathrow on behalf of Lufthansa. That service also lasted a year before being taken over last spring by Lufthansa’s City Line division using a regional jet.
As there are no links to Dresden from any other UK airport, passengers will either have to make connections with Lufthansa via Dusseldorf, Frankfurt or Munich (as they used to in the days before direct services) or else fly into nearby Leipzig or Berlin and complete the journey by ground transport.