=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/03/07/f= inancial0939EST0040.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, March 7, 2003 (AP) Lufthansa expanding business-only flights between Germany and the United St= ates (03-07) 06:39 PST BERLIN (AP) -- The German airline Lufthansa announced Friday it will begin offering business-only flights on two new routes between Germany and the United States in May, bidding for a bigger slice of the executive market at a time when overall passenger numbers remain depressed. From May 19, the German flag-carrier is running six flights a week betwe= en Munich and Newark, N.J., near New York. Flights using the same chartered 48-seat business jets between Duesseldorf and Chicago's O'Hare airport are to start June 9. Lufthansa said it was extending indefinitely an existing business-only service between Duesseldorf and Newark. Lufthansa and partner United Airlines canceled their scheduled flights with wide-body jets between Duesseldorf and Washington, D.C., and New York in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, but said it chartered the luxury planes from Swiss company PrivatAir to meet business demand. Spokesman Thomas Jachnow said the move has proved popular with executives and profitable for the airline. The plane is a modified Boeing 737 equipped with more spacious business class seats. "But if passenger numbers really recovered, we'd immediately go back to bigger planes," he said, denying reports that the use of the business jets was part of any new strategy for executive travel. "This choice is completely conditioned by the size of the market," he said. A round-trip ticket on the Munich-Newark flight will cost about 2,800 euros ($3,090) including tax, Jachnow said. The flights can also be booked under United Airlines flights codes. Separately, Lufthansa said new direct flights between Munich and Montrea= l, Canada would also begin May 19. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP