Lufthansa copying Condor with Eurowings

According to Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister, the demand for holiday trips is rising sharply. Therefore, the long-haul service from Munich and Frankfurt will be significantly expanded «together with Eurowings», says the manager. Lufthansa will support the low-cost subsidiary in marketing the new destinations through sales and services on the ground.

In Frankfurt, Lufthansa is relying entirely on the Eurowings brand for its expansion. The low-cost airline will be flying five times a week to Phoenix/Arizona from April 29th, 2020 and three times a week to Anchorage in Alaska starting June 1st. Eurowings is already offering flights from Frankfurt to Barbados, Mauritius, Las Vegas and Windhoek in the 2019/20 winter flight schedule. The two last of these winter destinations will also continue to be served in summer 2020.

Many Condor destinations

It is noticeable that Lufthansa has largely chosen destinations that Condor also offers from Frankfurt. In winter, for example, the competing German holiday airline also flies to Barbados, Las Vegas and Mauritius. Windhoek is on the program in summer – as are Anchorage and Phoenix. Eurowings thus becomes a kind of Condor duplicate on long-haul routes.

Lufthansa had also shown great interest in taking over Condor when the parent company Thomas Cook put its airlines up for sale. In May, the Group even submitted an offer. In the meantime, however, the sales process has been put on hold.

Sun Express flies for Eurowings

Lufthansa is also expanding in Munich, but increasingly with its core brand there. From the Bavarian capital, the flag carrier will fly six times a week to Seattle starting June 1st, five times a week to Detroit starting May 4th, and five times a week to Bangalore, India, starting March 31st. All these destinations are served by Airbus A350-900s and also attract business travelers. In addition, Eurowings will start a twice-weekly service from Munich to Las Vegas on April 6th, and a three-weekly flight to Orlando on April 7th.

The flights for Eurowings will be operated by Sun Express Germany in a wet-lease. Airbus A330s will be used, which are currently still equipped with 310 seats each but are expected to accommodate only 270 passengers by summer 2020.

A complicated network

Lufthansa’s strategy with Eurowings is currently not always easy to follow. In June, the Group announced a «strong focus on short point-to-point routes» for its low-cost subsidiary. It was announced that Eurowings would give up long-haul flights. Shortly afterward, however, they both made it clear that Eurowings should be retained as a brand on intercontinental flights. Nevertheless, Lufthansa took over commercial control completely.