Eurowings Makes Last Long-Haul Hurrah With New US Routes
Lufthansa Group's low-cost arm Eurowings will make something of a last hurrah in long-haul flying next summer, adding four new seasonal routes before wrapping up operations across the Atlantic.
Eurowings will offer new service between Frankfurt (FRA) and Anchorage (ANC) and Phoenix (PHX), and between Munich (MUC) and Las Vegas (LAS) and Orlando (MCO) for the summer 2020 season, Lufthansa said on Wednesday. The flights all begin on Apr. 20 and operate through the summer.
- Frankfurt-Anchorage: three times weekly, competes with Condor
- Frankfurt-Phoenix: five times weekly, competes with Condor
- Munich-Las Vegas: twice weekly
- Munich-Orlando: three times weekly
The airline will fly an Airbus A330-200 with 270 seats split between 22 in business class, 17 in premium economy and 231 in economy.
In June, Eurowings CEO Thorsten Dirks outlined turnaround plans for the airline that involve it ending long-haul services by the end of 2020 and focusing on short-haul point-to-point flying in Europe.
The odd thing is branded Eurowings long-haul flying will continue past 2020. Those flights, however, will be operated by and the responsibility of Lufthansa.
The split strategy is somewhat similar to the "Jump" platform Lufthansa employed for lower yield long-haul markets several years ago. The operation included several Airbus A340s branded "Lufthansa" in a leisure-oriented seating layout that were operated by lower-cost Lufthansa CityLine crews.
Lufthansa plans its own new routes to the US from Munich next year. The Star Alliance carrier will launch five-times weekly service to Detroit (DTW) and six-times weekly service to Seattle-Tacoma (SEA) from its Bavarian hub on Apr. 20. Both routes will operate year round with Airbus A350-900 aircraft with 293 seats.
Related: Review: Lufthansa A350 Business Class
"North America remains one of our strongest growth regions and where the Lufthansa Group carriers are meeting the global demands of our customers," said Heike Birlenbach, senior vice-president for global sales and chief commercial officer of the Frankfurt hub at the Lufthansa Group, in a statement.
Lufthansa will compete with Delta Air Lines on the Munich-Detroit route, according to Diio by Cirium schedules.
In addition, Lufthansa will begin flying the Airbus A380 year-round between Munich and both Boston (BOS) and San Francisco (SFO) next April. The airline operates A340-600 aircraft on both routes currently, Diio schedules show.
Related: Lufthansa Expands Airbus A380 Offerings in US
The new Eurowings and Lufthansa routes complement plans by Swiss to add Washington Dulles (IAD) to its map in 2020. Daily Washington flights from Zurich (ZRH) with an A330 begin on Mar. 29.
Lufthansa, as well as Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Swiss, flights between Europe and North America operate under a joint venture with fellow Star partners Air Canada and United Airlines. The partnership allows them to act as essentially a single carrier, coordinating schedules and fares, and offering passengers a more seamless travel experience among them.
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