German national carrier Lufthansa has officially unveiled its planned "Jump" project network with the Maldives, Mexico and Mauritius among its initial destinations. A leisure oriented A340 – 300 Airbus aircraft will be deployed to serve the Maldives twice weekly and is scheduled to start from December 8th 2015.
This aircraft, which will feature 298 seats in Business, Premium Economy and Economy Class. This plan by Lufthansa, was announced in the Maldives in a special ceremony held at Ibrahim Nasir International airport by the Managing Director of Maldives Airports Company. The Maldives Minister of Tourism Mr. Ahmed Adeeb who participated in this ceremony said to the local media that one of the most prominent requests made by European tourists is to set up more direct flights to the Maldives without having to transit in the Middle East, and that the request would be addressed by Lufthansa flying to the Maldives directly from Frankfurt, Germany.
According to the tourism ministry, 527,274 European tourists landed in the Maldives last year – amounting to 47 percent of total arrivals. The European airline with the most arrivals was Turkish Airlines with 33,303 arrivals followed by British Airways with 25,798 arrivals. Deutsche Lufthansa AG commonly known as Lufthansa is the flag carrier of Germany and when combined with its subsidiaries it is the largest airline in Europe, both in terms of overall passengers carried and fleet size. The carrier operates services to 18 domestic destinations in Germany and 197 international destinations in 78 countries covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, using a fleet of more than 280 aircraft. Deutsche Lufthansa AG is also the parent company for several other airlines including Swiss International Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Germanwings and Lufthansa Technik, besides the actual airline named Lufthansa. With over 620 aircraft, the airline with its subsidiaries form one of the largest passenger fleets in the world.