LH renews Walshe GSA

LUFTHANSA will continue to be represented in Australia under a General Sales Agency agreement with The Walshe Group, after the outcome of a recent RFP renewed the relationship for a further three to five years.

Walshe has looked after Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines in the local market for over six years (TD 21 Nov 2013) under the leadership of Anil Rodricks, after LH decided to close its own local office.

Heiko Brix, Lufthansa Regional Director Southeast Asia, Australia and NZ, was in Sydney yesterday and told Travel Daily the partnership with the Walshe Group had been very successful.

“2019 was our best year in Australia in the last five years... we have great confidence in the results being produced by our team here,” he said.

Australia is the largest offline market for Lufthansa, Brix said, adding: “it is quite core in terms of volume...headquarters is always looking at Australia as a stable and resilient market”.

Rodricks said the local operation was fully dedicated to trade distribution, and highlighted the plethora of options available for clients to travel to and from Europe through Asia and North America via partnerships with other carriers including United Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Air Canada.

He noted that 25% of local LH/ LX/OS traffic was over the USA and Canada, while the group’s joint venture with Singapore Airlines (TD 24 Jun 2016) was working well to provide more options for customers.

The expanding group has almost 200 new aircraft on order, and will take delivery of a plane every two weeks right through to 2027.