Juergen Lehle
The increasing competition in the skies over Europe forced the largest German airline to begin reorganization of its business more than a year ago, and to go on a bold experiment this autumn. One of the reorganization’s key objectives - to turn the Eurowings subsidiary to the third largest in Europe. The essence of the experiment is to let Eurowings aircrafts to long routes - carry tourists from Germany to Cuba, Dominican Republic, Thailand and United Arab Emirates.
The experiment begins November 2 with a premiere Eurowings flight to the Cuban resort of Varadero. On this route, the company will fly twice a week. The second focus will be on November 7: Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In mid-December, on the eve of Christmas and New Year holidays, these routes will be complemented with flights to another Dominican city - Puerto Plata, Bangkok, the Thai island of Phuket, as well as Dubai. The 2016 summer schedule should see the island of Mauritius.
So far, all of these flights will be carried out from the German airport Cologne/Bonn. The choice fell on it since "there are low airport charges what essential for each lowcoster, there is no ban on night flights, which is important for transcontinental flights; besides, it is Germanwings base airport", explains Andreas Bartels, Lufthansa’s press secretary. Of particular importance is the fact that the airport is in the middle of a densely populated region - within the radius of about 100 kilometers in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands is home to about 17 million people.
Eurowings' haul routes , in fact, are not much different from similar lowcoster’s intra-European flights, of course, except for the type of aircraft. Everything else is like a normal budget airline: base rate includes the flight only, any other services - transportation of luggage, seat selection, meals, entertainment on board (movies) are necessary to be extra paid.
According to Andreas Bartels, the tourists are very active on booking. Eric Heymann, the transport Expert at Analytical Center Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main believes that lowcosters’ market share in intra directions will continue to grow, although not as rapidly as before. At the time, he is rather skeptical about the commercial prospects of long-haul low cost flights.
- I admit that on some routes, the rejection of the usual long-haul flight service, required by business people, but not by tourists, will provide the necessary profitability. Especially if you attract young crews, ready to work for a more modest salaries. However, in general such a business -model is very ambitious: it will be very difficult to reduce costs to the same extent as on budget flights within Europe", - the analyst says.
source: dw.de
The experiment begins November 2 with a premiere Eurowings flight to the Cuban resort of Varadero. On this route, the company will fly twice a week. The second focus will be on November 7: Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. In mid-December, on the eve of Christmas and New Year holidays, these routes will be complemented with flights to another Dominican city - Puerto Plata, Bangkok, the Thai island of Phuket, as well as Dubai. The 2016 summer schedule should see the island of Mauritius.
So far, all of these flights will be carried out from the German airport Cologne/Bonn. The choice fell on it since "there are low airport charges what essential for each lowcoster, there is no ban on night flights, which is important for transcontinental flights; besides, it is Germanwings base airport", explains Andreas Bartels, Lufthansa’s press secretary. Of particular importance is the fact that the airport is in the middle of a densely populated region - within the radius of about 100 kilometers in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands is home to about 17 million people.
Eurowings' haul routes , in fact, are not much different from similar lowcoster’s intra-European flights, of course, except for the type of aircraft. Everything else is like a normal budget airline: base rate includes the flight only, any other services - transportation of luggage, seat selection, meals, entertainment on board (movies) are necessary to be extra paid.
According to Andreas Bartels, the tourists are very active on booking. Eric Heymann, the transport Expert at Analytical Center Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt am Main believes that lowcosters’ market share in intra directions will continue to grow, although not as rapidly as before. At the time, he is rather skeptical about the commercial prospects of long-haul low cost flights.
- I admit that on some routes, the rejection of the usual long-haul flight service, required by business people, but not by tourists, will provide the necessary profitability. Especially if you attract young crews, ready to work for a more modest salaries. However, in general such a business -model is very ambitious: it will be very difficult to reduce costs to the same extent as on budget flights within Europe", - the analyst says.
source: dw.de
