Eurowings
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| Founded | 1 February 1993 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenced operations | 1 January 1994 | |||
| Hubs |
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| Frequent-flyer program | Miles & More | |||
| Fleet size | 25 | |||
| Parent company | Lufthansa Group | |||
| Headquarters | Düsseldorf, Germany | |||
| Key people | F. W. Weitholz, Chairman | |||
| Website |
eurowings | |||
Eurowings GmbH[1] is a German airline based in Düsseldorf. It is a fully owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group and was part of Lufthansa Regional until October 2014 when it began operating on behalf of Germanwings exclusively to domestic and European destinations from several German airports. Its main bases are Düsseldorf Airport and Hamburg Airport.
As of March 2015, Eurowings is being redeveloped into a low-cost carrier for short- and long-haul flights and will also start to incorporate the route network currently operated under the Germanwings brand from October 2015.[2]
History
Early years
The airline was formed in 1 February 1993, following a merger of Nürnberger Flugdienst (NFD) and Reise- und Industrieflug (RFG), two commuter airlines based in Nürnberg and Dortmund, respectively. Flight operations using an initial fleet of ATR 42 and 72 aircraft inherited from Eurowing's predecessors were launched on 1 January 1994. Subsequently, BAe 146 aircraft were added to the fleet, which were later followed by larger Airbus A320 family aircraft and even an Airbus A310.[3] Independent flight operations came to an end when Eurowings was acquired by Lufthansa.
Development since the 2000s
As at 31 December 2006, Lufthansa had a 49% shareholding in Eurowings with a call option for 50.91% of the remaining stakes, bringing the company into the Lufthansa Group fold.[4] At that time, Eurowings was the owner of Germanwings, thus creating a low-cost branch within the Lufthansa trust. Plans to merge these two airlines with TUIfly (controlled by TUI Travel) into a joint and independent holding company, were brought forth during 2008, but did not materialize.[5] Instead, Lufthansa announced in December 2008 to acquire Germanwings from Eurowings.[6]
In September 2010 Eurowings closed its headquarters and technical infrastructure in Dortmund, Germany, and moved both to Düsseldorf, where Eurowings operated most of its flights since the airline was part of Lufthansa Regional. In March 2011, the maintenance division at Nürnberg Airport was also closed.
In late 2013 Eurowings started to operate flights for sister airline Germanwings as short haul flights, that are not operated from Frankfurt or Munich, are transferred from Lufthansa to Germanwings.[7] All Eurowings flights operated on behalf of Lufthansa Regional ceased by autumn 2014 and were rebranded to Germanwings, the last ones to and from Düsseldorf.
Establishment of a new concept
In July 2014, the Lufthansa Group announced that Eurowings would transfer from its Bombardier CRJ fleet to an Airbus A320 fleet. Lufthansa also announced plans to transform Eurowings from a regional airline into a low-cost long and short-haul carrier by the end of 2015. Eurowings' current 23 CRJ900 aircraft will be replaced with 23 Airbus A320s, of which 10 are new orders and 13 will be transferred from Lufthansa Group orders, between February 2015 and March 2017.[8]
On 1 February 2015, Eurowings started operating Airbus A320-200 after taking delivery of its first airplane on 20 January which was handed over from Lufthansa and repainted into Eurowings' new livery. This and following A320s will be operated on behalf of Germanwings for most of 2015 until Lufthansa plans to consolidate its low-cost operations under the new Eurowings brand by end of the year.[2] Additionally, in February 2015, the Lufthansa Group announced that SunExpress Deutschland will be the operator of Eurowings' new long-haul operations which will be based at Cologne Bonn Airport from November 2015. SunExpress Deutschland therefore will receive leased Airbus A330-200s.[9]
Eurowings also announced to establish its first base outside of Germany at Vienna International Airport where the aircraft will be operated by Austrian Airlines under the Eurowings brand. Previous plans to establish the first base at Basel/Mulhouse have been cancelled.[10]
From October 2015, Eurowings will take over the first 55 routes previously operated under the Germanwings brand to its own, Eurowings branded network.[11] By April 2016, Eurowings will have taken over several more routes.[12]
Destinations
As of April 2015, Eurowings serves several domestic and European destinations on behalf of Germanwings using the Germanwings brand. In October 2015, Eurowings also will take over several destinations now served on behalf of Germanwings.[13]
| [Hub] | Main hubs |
| [F] | Future destination |
| [S] | Seasonal |
| [T] | Terminated destination |
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Fleet
As of April 2015, the Eurowings fleet consists of the following aircraft:[14]
| Aircraft | In Service | Orders | Passengers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bombardier CRJ900 | to be transferred to Lufthansa CityLine[15] and replaced by Airbus A320-200s | |||
| Airbus A320-200 | 8 to be transferred from Lufthansa (2015-2016), 6 to be delivered pre-owned (2016)[16] and 10 new from Airbus (2016-2017)[17] | |||
| Airbus A330-200 | to be operated by SunExpress Deutschland from October 2015[18][19] | |||
| Boeing 767-300ER | to be wet-leased from the TUI Group from October 2015[19] | |||
| Total | 26 | 27 |
Fleet development
Over the years, Eurowings operated the following aircraft types:[3]
| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A310 | |||
| Airbus A319-100 | |||
| Airbus A320-200 | withdrawn in 2003, reintroduced in 2015 | ||
| ATR 42 | |||
| ATR 72 | |||
| Boeing 737-300 | |||
| BAe 146 | |||
| Bombardier CRJ200 | |||
| Bombardier CRJ700 | |||
| Bombardier CRJ900 | |||
| Dornier 328[20] | |||
References
- ↑ "List of Air Carriers licenced by the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (current Operating Licences), Version: October 27, 2014" (PDF). 27 October 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.aero.de/news/Eurowings-erhaelt-ersten-Airbus-von-Lufthansa.html
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Eurowings historic fleet list at airfleets.net
- ↑ "Annual Report 2006" (PDF). Lufthansa AG. Page 176. Retrieved 2007-08-16. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ Announcement of TUI AG
- ↑ Eurowings to sell Germanwings stake to Lufthansa
- ↑ lufthansa.com
- ↑ "Wings Set for Take-off". Airliner World: 5. February 2015.
- ↑ http://www.lufthansagroup.com/de/presse/meldungen/view/archive/2015/march/04/article/3449.html
- ↑ http://www.aerotelegraph.com/lufthansa-eurowings-station-sort-basis-wien
- ↑ http://airlineroute.net/2015/03/23/4uew-w15update1/
- ↑ http://airlineroute.net/2015/04/07/4uew-apr16/
- ↑ http://airlineroute.net/2015/03/23/4uew-w15update1/ germanwings Moves 55 Routes to Eurowings from late-Oct 2015
- ↑ Eurowings fleet list at ch-aviation.com
- ↑ http://www.aerointernational.de/airlines-nachrichten/austrian-airlines-startet-mittelstrecken-umflottung-noch-heuer.html
- ↑ http://ch-aviation.com/portal/news/35845-lufthansa-orders-more-b777s-for-swiss-more-a320s-for-eurowings
- ↑ Eurowings A320ceo order.
- ↑ http://www.lufthansagroup.com/en/themen/eurowings.html
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 http://www.aero.de/news-21381/Tui-arbeitet-mit-Eurowings-zusammen.html
- ↑ D-CATS OLT Dornier 328-110 - cn 3009
External links
Media related to Eurowings at Wikimedia Commons
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