Lufthansa Group has launched its innovative Upstream Check-In (UCI) service in eight ports across the Greater Bay Area. This service enables passengers flying with Lufthansa German Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines to complete immigration, check-in, and baggage tagging at six ferry ports and two land ports before arriving at the SkyPier within Hong Kong International Airport’s restricted area. From there, they can proceed directly to the boarding gates without going through immigration or customs in Hong Kong. The service is also available for passengers traveling from Europe to the Greater Bay Area.
With UCI, passengers can collect the baggage at the final destinations, as no baggage reclaim, and further airline check-in, are required. The minimum connection time at the HKIA SkyPier Terminal is then shortened from 110 minutes to approximately 80 minutes.
Frank Naeve, Lufthansa Group Senior Vice President Sales & Distribution attended today’s launch ceremony in Shenzhen Shekou Port and explained, “Our group is heavily investing in modernizing our fleet with the acquisition of state-of-the-art long-haul aircrafts. But that’s not all, we are working continuously to improve our customer experience including the opening of new lounge facilities, offering new catering concepts as well as enhancing the digital experience for our customers. Overall, we are investing more than € 2.5bn in Product & Services by 2025.”
Lufthansa Group aims to further enhance the passenger experience and expects to serve around 20,000 passengers with this new service on yearly basis.
Felipe Bonifatti, newly appointed Vice President Asia Pacific & Joint Ventures East, Lufthansa Group as well as Ms. Qian Chen, Senior Director Sales Greater China, Lufthansa Group also attended the kick-off ceremony of the UCI launch in Shenzhen.
Currently, Lufthansa Group offers direct flights from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland both on daily basis. To enjoy the convenient UCI service and purchase a ferry ticket, passengers are required to present valid air tickets of Lufthansa Group with confirmed seats departing from HKIA. The 8 ports in Greater Bay Area includes Zhongshan, Shenzhen Shekou, Guangzhou Nansha, Dongguan Humen, Guangzhou Pazhou, Macau Maritime Ferry Terminal and Hong Kong–Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Zhuhai Port, Hong Kong–Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Macau Port.
Furthermore, Lufthansa Cargo has strong presence in South China as well and has added Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport to its freighter network and serviced it twice a week since this July.
