Story ID: 
Lufthansa Private Jets ‘Coming Back’ to NetJets
By: Charles Alcock
Caption: Lufthansa has decided to close its Swiss Private Aviation (SPA) subsidiary and is set to seal a new deal with NetJets Europe to provide charter flights for
Word Count: 232
Lufthansa has decided to close its Swiss Private Aviation (SPA) subsidiary and is set to seal a new deal with NetJets Europe to provide charter flights for its Lufthansa Private Jets service. At the International Corporate Jets & Helicopter Finance conference in London yesterday, NetJets Europe CFO Luis Pinto revealed that the German flag carrier has made the decision to stop operating executive charter flights with its own fleet of Cessna Citation CJ1+s, CJ3s and XLSs, as well as Hawker 800s. Last month, Lufthansa acknowledged that it was reviewing the operation and that SPA had completed a consultation with employees about the company’s future. The airline has yet to publicly confirm the outcome of this process, but Pinto noted: “[SPA] hasn’t worked and [Lufthansa is] coming back to NetJets.” In late 2007, Lufthansa and NetJets suspended a previous agreement to support Lufthansa Private Jets services. A Lufthansa spokesman told AIN that a decision on SPA’s future has not yet been confirmed. He emphasized that the Lufthansa Private Jets service will continue. Pinto also reported that NetJets Europe is “cautiously optimistic” about the fractional ownership and block charter provider’s prospects for recording another operating profit this year. He said that demand for flights has started growing again, but added that the company cannot be certain that this constitutes “a sustainable underlying trend.”