If you're flying betwen the US and Europe, you may want to avoid flying Lufthansa. According to Der Spiegel, the German airliner has begun denying Germany's air marshals the expensive seats near the cockpit where they can protect the flight crew -- and often refuses to give them any tickets at all:

The officer swore an oath of secrecy on becoming a sky marshal, so his name can't be revealed -- in fact no sky marshal has spoken about his work since the German government created the jobs in October 2001, shortly after 9/11. "Inspektion 6," the sky-marshal unit of the Federal Police Authority at Frankfurt airport, is the most secretive German police organization next to the elite GSG9 force.

But the situation for sky marshals has never been as depressing as it is now, says the officer and a one of his colleagues. Official figures claim that 200 police officers travel constantly on German passenger jets to prevent 9/11-style attacks with civilian aircraft. In fact, there are only 112 (as of Nov. 1 2006) -- and they aren't flying as much as they used to, according to the two officers.

The men say Lufthansa keeps cancelling first- or business-class tickets that would put them close to the cockpit -- and sometimes bumps them off flights entirely. "They don't want to give out expensive seats anymore," complains one of the officers.

The head of Germany's police union, Konrad Freiberg, finds the notion alarming. "If the price of a ticket is more important than a central security task, then the balance has shifted in the wrong direction," he said.

Der Spiegel's source is apparently the first German air marshal to give an interview to any publication, as they consider themselves an elite force dedicated to the clandestine protection of travelers against terrorism. However, they have increasingly found that the airlines themselves -- most particularly Lufthansa, the largest airline -- have tired of the revenue lost to the air marshals. Five years after 9/11, the lack of a repeat episode has convinced them that the risk is lower than the cost of the increased security.

Amazingly, the most common flights for cancellations are Lufthansa's intercontinental flights. Despite the obvious focus that terrorists would have on these flights, especially to the Middle East and North America, Lufthansa has refused to issue tickets to the marshals unless they cannot sell out the flight, which forces the marshals to wait until the last moment to make their flight choices, if they get on at all. That means that Lufthansa flights from the US, especially the heavily-traveled routes, will almost certainly have no extra security on board.

And if that's not bad enough, Der Spiegel says another major airliner refuses to allow any air marshals on board any of its flights. DS refused to name the carrier for "obvious security reasons".

Lufthansa denies that they have been uncooperative with German air marshals. DS has more than one source in the program, though, and even an anonymous Lufthansa pilot that confirms the story. It seems that Lufthansa may be less that fully forthcoming about its relationship with the German air marshal service.

Perhaps people should rethink their travel plans and use another airliner other than Lufthansa. If enough travelers opt for Lufthansa's competitors after getting commitments to full cooperation with air marshals, then Lufthansa will have plenty of available seating for the men who would protect Germans and Americans from another terrorist attack on the airline industry.

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