Eurowings in trouble

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Bred

Guest
We may loose one more airline to/from Europe.

Lufthansa's Eurowings to withdraw from long-haul market

Travellers praise Eurowings, Lufthansa’s budget subsidiary, for its service and reliability.

By that I refer to the product offered by other low-cost carriers (LCCs) such as Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizzair.

LCCs are hard-nosed businesses. Passengers can and do grumble about the lack of services but in truth these all cost money and this adds to operating costs.

In truth the latter determine whether or not a LCC can prosper.

That’s the situation in which Eurowings finds itself in. Lufthansa Group is displeased with Eurowings’ financial performance and at today’s Capital Markets Day a turnaround plan has been announced.

Many details were not made available. But from the consumer viewpoint we can expect the following changes at Eurowings in the coming months.

Eurowings will focus on short-haul, point-to-point operations.
Eurowings long-haul operations will now be transferred to the Network Airlines.

What does that mean in simple terms? Currently Eurowings has quasi-interlining both with its own services and with selected other carriers. It’s a useful facility for passengers but it costs money and it now appears this service will be dropped.

Of equal concern is Eurowings’ withdrawal from long-haul services.

As Business Traveller has reported in the past, Eurowings flies long-haul to places as varied as Thailand and the USA.

These routes are ones which Lufthansa mainline would have operated previously but which it [Lufthansa mainline] had transferred to Eurowings in a cost-saving move.

Indeed only a few months ago we reported that Munich-Bangkok was being transferred to Eurowings.

Lufthansa mainline operates only at Frankfurt and Munich. Both short- and long-haul services from other German cities are operated by Eurowings.

It remains unclear whether some of these Eurowings routes will be transferred in future to mainline or to other Network Airlines: Austrian Airlines, Swiss and Brussels Airlines.

Lufthansa said that it intends to use innovations in sales and distribution to reduce costs.
 
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Bred

Guest
On another thought. Those charter flights we have now from Dusseldorf to POP (2 times a week) and to Samana (once a week) are operated by SunExpress Deutschland on behalf of Eurowings. Someone should still be able to transport European tourists cheaply here in case Eurowings stops long-haul flights.
 
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MoeP

Guest
Seems to be part of a larger reshuffeling within Lufthansa Group. A couple of months ago they announced Brussels Airlines will disappear from the European market and take over more long haul flights. They also changed plane designs to make it easier to move them from one airline to another. If you connect all the dots it looks like Brussels will be the low cost long haul carrier in the future and Eurowing will be the short haul one. So maybe no flights are lost, they just switch from one airline to another?
 
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Uzin

Guest
Confusing indeed, so will they honor their tickets sold for this year or various long haul flights could be cancelled, that would be very annoying to hear about it the last minute - specially for those of us who need to buy or bought connecting flights... ! :eek:
 
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Bred

Guest
Confusing indeed, so will they honor their tickets sold for this year or various long haul flights could be cancelled, that would be very annoying to hear about it the last minute - specially for those of us who need to buy or bought connecting flights... ! :eek:

With Lufthansa being a parent company for Eurowings I believe they will honour already issued tickets or in case of cancelled flights will re-accomodate you on other flights.
 
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MoeP

Guest
Confusing indeed, so will they honor their tickets sold for this year or various long haul flights could be cancelled, that would be very annoying to hear about it the last minute - specially for those of us who need to buy or bought connecting flights... ! :eek:

With Lufthansa these situations usually work out somehow when they once again restructure or rebrand their airlines... My geuss is, you may find yourself in a Brussels Airlines plane instead of Eurowings, but the rest will stay the same.
 
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beeza

Guest
EW will stop flying to the DR at the end of Oct. They will move their main base from DUS to FRA and their routes will be more focused on Africa and the East as opposed to Caribbean and US.

Condor will return to POP and AZS this winter.
 
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beeza

Guest
On a personal note, I don't like working with EW. Although I've always found their pilots and cabin crew to be extremely pleasant and professional, they have been forced into an economic situation with some of the worst working practices in the industry.

It appeared to me that that only goal was to kill off the competition regardless of cost to them. Countless delays and poor serviceability of their ageing aircraft. I couldn't see how their current business model was sustainable, as they must have been haemorrhaging money. Although true, they were the final nail in Air Berlin's and Germania's coffins, which seems to be Lufthansa's ultimate goal. I see a lot of ex Air Berlin pilots working for EW, some of them earning half of what they did previously. Their staff turnover is huge too. As soon as these guys get a better offer, then they are off.

EW is the classic example of today's modern greedy corporate world. I don't profess to be an accountant, but so many industries are purely driven by profits these days. The margins are so tiny, that when the market coughs, the business fails, the shareholders ditch their stock and re-invest in something else and hundreds or thousands of loyal employees loose their jobs.
 
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drstock

Guest
EW will stop flying to the DR at the end of Oct. They will move their main base from DUS to FRA and their routes will be more focused on Africa and the East as opposed to Caribbean and US.

Condor will return to POP and AZS this winter.

The Condor website currently says the first flights are from 1st April. Is this going to change?
 
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habi

Guest
Hmmmm... I see a direct flights from POP to FRA from November 13th on the Condor website... But nothing from Samana....
 
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Uzin

Guest
Hmmmm... I see a direct flights from POP to FRA from November 13th on the Condor website... But nothing from Samana....

Condor prices are just too expensive, 13 Nov POP -> FRA one way is US$650 and the week after US$730 from their website. Tui is much cheaper at €220 around those dates for POP -> BRU one way, so not comparable at all. I doubt Samana prices will be any better.

The funny thing is Condor says only 9 places left for all dates.... !? lol, I guess they say that to get people hurry up and book...(Many airlines to that, I wish some consumer protection service take them to court for misleading info and lying on these).

I hope replacement for Eurowings will have competitive prices for POP and also make it available to book online and not through agents...
 
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Bred

Guest
The funny thing is Condor says only 9 places left for all dates.... !? lol, I guess they say that to get people hurry up and book...(Many airlines to that, I wish some consumer protection service take them to court for misleading info and lying on these).

That usually means 9+

I can't recall seeing anywhere 10 or more seats available.
 
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Uzin

Guest
That usually means 9+

I can't recall seeing anywhere 10 or more seats available.

You maybe right but the wording is not telling the customer that is the case.

Just to be sure I checked it again and this is the exact phrase used on Condor:

"9 left at that price"

To someone not as experienced or expert, it means only 9 tickets left at the price and not 9+ or more than 9 or whatever interpretation they like to convey. Simple marketing trick I call it and unfair...
 
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Riva_31

Guest
Condor prices are just too expensive, 13 Nov POP -> FRA one way is US$650 and the week after US$730 from their website. Tui is much cheaper at €220 around those dates for POP -> BRU one way, so not comparable at all. I doubt Samana prices will be any better.

The funny thing is Condor says only 9 places left for all dates.... !? lol, I guess they say that to get people hurry up and book...(Many airlines to that, I wish some consumer protection service take them to court for misleading info and lying on these).

I hope replacement for Eurowings will have competitive prices for POP and also make it available to book online and not through agents...

That mean that price they setup only 9 seats, when the 9 persons purchase those seats then you will see diferent prices, the leisure airlines put diferent prices to the seats.