Germanwings

Germanwings GmbH was a German low-cost airline wholly owned by Lufthansa which operated under the Eurowings brand.[1] It was based in Cologne with hubs at Cologne Bonn Airport, Stuttgart Airport, Hamburg Airport, Berlin Tegel Airport, and Munich Airport; and further bases at Hannover Airport and Dortmund Airport.[2]

Germanwings operated independently as Lufthansa's low-cost carrier until October 2015, when Lufthansa decided to fully transfer the brand identity of its low cost short haul-product to Eurowings. After 2016, Germanwings operated as a wet lease operator for its sister company Eurowings, with the Germanwings branding being phased out. The IATA code 4U continued to operate under the Eurowings brand until March 2018, when it was abandoned and replaced with the Eurowings designator EW. Germanwings was closed and merged back into Eurowings in April 2020 as part of a broad restructuring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

History

Early years

In 1997, Eurowings set up a low-cost department, which became a separate company under the name Germanwings on 27 October 2002. On 7 December 2005, the airline signed an agreement to purchase 18 Airbus A319-100 aircraft with a further 12 options, with deliveries scheduled from July 2006 until 2008.[3]

During winter 2004–05, Germanwings leased two Boeing 717-200s from Aerolíneas de Baleares to test the aircraft type, but no purchase order was made afterwards.

In 2008, initial plans were made to merge Germanwings, Eurowings and TUIfly into one airline to compete with Air Berlin and its subsidiary LTU in the German market and with easyJet and Ryanair on international routes. However, these plans were never realized. Instead, Germanwings became a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa on 1 January 2009.[4]

Takeover of Lufthansa routes from 2012

In 2012, Lufthansa announced its plans to transfer point-to-point shorthaul flights operating from cities other than Frankfurt and Munich from Lufthansa to Germanwings.[5][6] Therefore, the company received a revised corporate design. These transfers were made between spring 2013 and autumn 2014; Düsseldorf Airport was the last base transferred from March 2014.

As part of the 2013 restructuring and relaunch of Germanwings, around 30 Lufthansa aircraft were to be added to Germanwings' fleet of 33 aircraft.[7] Additionally, the 23 aircraft currently operated by Eurowings for Lufthansa flights not flying out of Frankfurt and Munich were to join Germanwings. The new Germanwings was to operate around 90 aircraft.

The airline had a long-standing dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union, which demanded a plan in which pilots can retire at the age of 55 and retain 60% of their pay, which parent Lufthansa insists was not affordable. Germanwings pilots staged a nationwide strike in support of their demands in April 2014, which lasted 3 days. The pilots staged a six-hour strike in September 2014. Simultaneous strikes were staged by Lufthansa pilots.[8]

Integration into Eurowings from 2015

In January 2015, Lufthansa Group announced that it would discontinue the Germanwings brand and replace it with Eurowings starting in late 2015.[12]

On 25 October 2015, Eurowings took over 55 routes previously operated under the Germanwings brand.[13][14] The first Germanwings bases to be mostly taken over by Eurowings were Düsseldorf Airport, Hamburg Airport - at both of which Eurowings already operated on behalf of Germanwings - and Cologne Bonn Airport.

Lufthansa announced in October 2015 that Germanwings' own website would be dissolved and redirected to Eurowings by January 2016 as part of their merger. However, Germanwings continued to operate as a company.[15] From that date, Eurowings became solely responsible for all sales under the Germanwings brand.[16]

airline	Germanwings
fleet size	33
iata	4U
icao	GWI
callsign	GERMANWINGS
parent	Lufthansa Group
founded	1997 (as a division of Eurowings)
commenced	2002 (spin-off from Eurowings)
ceased	April 7, 2020
headquarters	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
key people	Executive Board: Michael Knitter Francesco Sciortino
bases	Berlin–Schönefeld Berlin–Tegel Cologne/Bonn Dortmund Hamburg Hannover Munich Stuttgart
frequent flyer	Boomerang Club Miles & More
website	www.eurowings.com

History

Early years

Takeover of Lufthansa routes from 2012

Integration into Eurowings from 2015

Corporate affairs

Service concept

Business trends

Destinations

Codeshare agreements

Fleet

Special liveries

Incidents and accidents

See also

External links

References