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Stephen Lorenz

Tested: The new Condor Premium Economy in the A330neo from New York to Frankfurt

Stephen Lorenz 14. February 2023 12:13

It is Monday, February 13, 2023, when in Terminal 7 of New York's JFK airport - bar tables, Condor roll-ups and balloons of different colors decorate the check-in area and the gate area of ​​Gate 4. With a bright blue sky and an outside temperature of 11 degrees, Condor's gold and white striped Airbus A14-45neo landed for the first time at 330:900 p.m. local time. While in recent weeks a mixture of SmartLynx and Wamos Air A330s had been used on the Frankfurt - New York JFK route, Condor's "own" A12.02, the D-AIYA, landed the day before (330), albeit an A330-200 that was formerly in service with Etihad Airways and which we at Aviation.Direct had already tested in Business Class on a flight from Palma de Mallorca in April. Condor had obviously prepared professionally and left nothing to chance that day. In the renovated Terminal 7, where the codeshare flights of Condor's partner Alaska Airlines take off and land from JFK and where the "Alaska Airlines Lounge" is located, the check-in counters had already been decorated in the new corporate design and equipped with "Welcome A330neo" items. After the smooth check-in, there was a brief setback. Even though the use of the "Fast Lane" had been indicated on the boarding pass and on the homepage, the employee at the access control to security simply smiled "sorry, we don't have a fast lane", and so I went into the regular queue, which welcomed me with an expected waiting time of "less than 35 minutes". After this hurdle had also been overcome,

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The Canary Island alternative: In the Canaryfly ATR72 from Fuerteventura to Gran Canaria

Stephen Lorenz 13 January 2023 07:01

The terminal at Fuerteventura Airport is completely empty on this January morning. When I order a "Café con Leche" shortly after 7 in the only café open before the security check, the friendly waitress yawns and says "Perdón" in my face. When I reach the only completely empty check-in counter for Canaryfly flight "PM804" a few minutes later, there are surprisingly long queues at the neighboring counters of the only competitor in domestic traffic, "Binter Canarias". A first indication of the workload that was about to await me? Canaryfly, which was launched in 2010 as the successor to the insolvent "Islas Airways", unlike the all-powerful Binter Canarias with a fleet of just five ATR72-212A, only serves routes between the Canary Islands. The islands of El Hierro, La Palma, Lanzarote, Tenerife (North), Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura are connected to each other, but flights outside of the airport, including to neighboring North Africa, are nowhere to be found. The airline has established itself in its 13th year of operation and its flight operations are stable and reliable. Cabin: The cabin of the almost 14-year-old ATR72 EC-NYS, which was previously in service in the Czech Republic with CSA, the Italian Mistral Air and Azul in Brazil, looked clean and in really good condition. The dark blue leather-covered seats were immaculate, otherwise the cabin can be described as "unspectacular", as is typical for a turboprop of this age. Anyone expecting more than a folding table and a seat pocket in front of them will unfortunately be disappointed. Wifi /

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Power poker at Eurowings Germany – Management stops growth with immediate effect

Stephen Lorenz 18 October 2022 16:40

The deadline set by Eurowings to the union passed the previous evening without result. In the dispute between the management of Eurowings Germany (EWD) and the Cockpit Association (VC), the management is now pulling its own rug. As announced by Eurowings this early afternoon, growth at EWD will be stopped with "immediate effect". The reason given is the four days of strikes and the corresponding strike damage. This means that the Lufthansa subsidiary cannot continue the development path of its German flight operations in the "planned form". Specifically, Eurowings announced that the fleet at "EWD" targeted for 2023 will be reduced by 5 aircraft from the planned 81 to just 76 aircraft with immediate effect. The further consequences will also be addressed; the planned hiring of 200 additional cockpit and cabin positions will be stopped with immediate effect. Pilots in training at Eurowings Germany will now initially receive fixed-term contracts. Finally, there is also a clear warning to the cockpit staff already employed. Due to the reduced fleet size, Eurowings Germany will of course also need fewer captains, which means that all upcoming promotions of co-pilots to captain will also be stopped with immediate effect. Yesterday afternoon, Eurowings had given the Cockpit Association a deadline of 21:30 p.m. yesterday evening in the current wage dispute over future working conditions to end the strikes immediately. This “deadline”, which was accompanied by the threat of the reduction announced today, was apparently allowed to pass without any reaction by the union. On today, the second day of the pilots’ strike, Eurowings also had to

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Air Cairo is expanding further in the 2023 summer flight schedule

Stephen Lorenz 17 October 2022 09:08

A total of eight new routes from Marsa Alam and one new route from Hurghada have been announced. The Egyptian airline Air Cairo, which has gradually acquired a more modern fleet with brand new A320neo (5 units) and a contemporary, fresh corporate identity, is continuing to expand in the coming 2023 summer season. The focus is primarily on the holiday resort of Marsa Alam on the Red Sea. This is located about 300 km as the crow flies, south of Hurghada. New to the program are scheduled flights from Marsa Alam to Berlin, Cologne-Bonn, Hanover and Stuttgart once a week in the A320/A320neo. Switzerland will also get a weekly flight from Marsa Alam, with Zurich being flown to. The destinations Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich will even be offered twice a week in summer 2023. The German regional airport Münster-Osnabrück is also set to get a piece of the pie. From June 24, 2023, Air Cairo plans to connect the airport with the seaside resort of Hurghada once a week, also with an A1/A320neo. Air Cairo is an Egyptian airline that now offers around 320 weekly charter and scheduled flights from Egypt with a fleet of 14 Airbus A320s. In addition to destinations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the flight schedule also includes regular flights to Kuwait, Baku and Jeddah. Air Cairo came into the focus of the general public in Germany in December 200 when the Federal Aviation Office (LBA) withdrew its permit to fly to and from Germany for a good two weeks. The reason given at the time was a violation of safety regulations in on-board catering.

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Comment: British Airways subsidiary "Euroflyer" is again hiring Gatwick-Berlin

Stephen Lorenz 17 October 2022 07:34

Withdrawal in the duel with easyJet on the route after just a few weeks. British Airways and short-haul flights at Gatwick Airport feel like a never-ending story. Unlike the hub and home port of London Heathrow, where BA is clearly the top dog, London's Gatwick Airport, the second-largest in terms of passenger numbers and located in the south of the city, has always been somewhat of an unloved "stepchild". For years, this gave easyJet, also a British airline, the opportunity to expand locally almost undisturbed. The British low-cost carrier now has more than 75 aircraft stationed at Gatwick Airport, which is now approaching its absolute capacity limit and therefore no longer has any slots worth mentioning. One airline that still has slots is British Airways, even if it has not managed to fly short and medium-haul flights profitably from Gatwick for years. And so, even after the Corona pandemic and the halt of all BA short-haul flights from Gatwick, a memo was sent to the airline's own staff informing them that they needed their own, operationally lean structure in order to be competitive at Gatwick. After a planning phase, this resulted in the "Euroflyer" model, which has now been developed for Gatwick, very similar to the product developed specifically for London City (LCY) called "Cityflyer". Almost 30 routes from Faro via Tenerife to Berlin were announced last December with flight operations starting in March 2022. The Berlin route had to accept a postponement from March 2022 to May 2022 shortly after bookings were approved because "BA" simply lacked material and personnel at Gatwick. The route was finally launched in May 2022 with 5 weekly flights.

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Dispute about future working conditions at Eurowings Germany escalates

Stephen Lorenz 17 October 2022 07:01

Vereinigung Cockpit calls for 72-hour warning strike from Monday 00:00 to Wednesday 23:59 The dispute between the management of Eurowings Deutschland (EWD) and Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) has reached the next escalation level. Late on Friday evening, the union at Eurowings Deutschland issued its second call for a strike, this time for three full days in a row. Even though the autumn holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia, perhaps the most important state for Eurowings, end this weekend, the situation is different across the country. The three strike days now announced will be autumn holidays in 7 of the 16 federal states, the second most important holiday period for the German travel industry after the summer holidays. It is foreseeable that several thousand passengers in Germany and Europe will once again be stranded at airports with no plan, initially with their families and everything. The last time the pilots at Eurowings Deutschland went on strike for a day was on October 06, less than two weeks ago. While the Eurowings management appealed to its own workforce with an "open letter" after the first call for a strike, online meetings with the pilots were hastily initiated for both today, Saturday, and tomorrow, Sunday, after this much more painful call for a strike, apparently in the hope of being able to avert the announced strikes in whole or in part. Already during the first day of the strike on October 06, just over half of the 300 planned flights (500) had to be cancelled. Around 31 passengers were affected. In the now announced 000-hour strike, these two figures are likely to be considerably higher. An interesting fact is that the content of this strike is

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The Spanish "value carrier": In the Vueling A320 from Málaga to Ibiza

Stephen Lorenz September 30, 2022 07:08

It is a beautiful morning in August when I finish my freshly squeezed orange juice at 10:30, when it is already 34 degrees in the shade, in the cafeteria "La Canasta", close to the "Malagueta" beach area. At the next table sit eight older Spanish men, all in their late 60s. Four of them are playing cards against each other, the other four are standing behind them and loudly adding their two cents with a coffee in their hand. On the one hand, it is the warm, almost detached "childish laughter" of the older men, and on the other hand the completely relaxed, deeply calm manner and philosophy of life of many southern Europeans that impresses me time and time again. When I ask for the bill and shortly afterwards put my ten euro note in the small bowl, I still have a good 3,5 hours to check out of my hotel nearby and take the city airport bus to the airport. When I reach Terminal 12 of the “Costa del Sol” airport in Malaga at around 3 o’clock, there are long queues at the Vueling check-in counters. It will take me a good hour to drop off my luggage that afternoon and I feel a little nervous, which is probably what the queue at the security check would say. Fortunately, the entire line was clear after less than 10 minutes and there was still time for a little shopping at the airport. From “Victoria Secret” to a “Jamie Oliver Deli”, Costa Coffee and Starbucks, the foreign, often British tourists here at the airport are said to lack nothing. When I

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BER: Two first flights in one week - Norse Atlantic is now also starting on the US west coast

Stephen Lorenz August 19, 2022 18:53

Three weekly flights to LAX with the 787-9 Dreamliner from Berlin/Brandenburg. After a five-year break, there is now a connection from Berlin to Los Angeles again. The Norwegian start-up airline "Norse Atlantic Airways", which was only a few months old, is now offering three weekly non-stop flights from Berlin to Los Angeles. The joy about this is clearly palpable in Berlin today. "Berlin is once again getting a connection to its oldest twin city" (since 1967 - editor's note), said Berlin's Senator for Economic Affairs Stephan Schwarz on the occasion of the first flight and also never tires of emphasizing that the connection with the US state of California, the local economy and the "IT hub" - Silicon Valley - is an immense gain for the local economy. Schwarz is also pleased that Norse specifically wants to "appeal to younger passengers and visitors to Berlin". A goal that is also being reinforced by Norse locally. With the direct flight between BER and LAX, Norse also saves annoying transfers and waiting - and Norse Chief Operation Officer (COO) Thom-Arne Norheim attaches great importance to this - "of course, the risk of losing your luggage is also reduced on a non-stop flight from A to B without transfers", a fact that should not be ignored, especially this summer. When asked about his experiences with Berlin so far, he starts to rave. "We are happy to be here, but we are even happier about this wonderful reception," he says, beaming. "Berlin is not only Germany's capital, but one of the most important capitals in Europe," he says.

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Corendon: Any signs of growth? What is the carrier offering this summer?

Stephen Lorenz August 3, 2022 07:01

This time we flew to Nuremberg with Corendon's (own) Boeing 737-800. Hardly any trip report has subsequently provoked such a large number of reactions as the trip report six months ago about the Maltese branch of the Turkish Corendon Airlines. An airline (group) that will remain in the spotlight this summer due to a huge expansion of its own operations. Hardly any other airline in this country currently has such an exciting range of wet lease and sub-charter aircraft to cope with these ambitious growth plans. Regardless of whether it is the Boeing 737-800 of the Ukrainian SkyUp, the Airbus A320 of the Danish DAT, or the latest coup, an Airbus A330-302 of the Maltese GetJet subsidiary - AirHub Airlines, at the beginning of the 2022 summer season, the Corendon fleet used consisted of almost 50%(!) leased aircraft. But there has also been movement in the company's own fleet in recent months, with the Turkish parent company now using a total of 6 new Boeing 737max8s. On the one hand, this brings some relief to this year's heavy summer OPS with a large number of inconsistent aircraft, and on the other hand, it also reduces the use of costly sub-charters a little. So when booking this flight to Nuremberg in Franconia, the exciting question arose as to which airline and which aircraft would be used on the booked flight. In the end, it was fortunately a company-owned Boeing 737-800, with the registration 9H-TJB, from the Maltese branch "Corendon Europe Airlines", a well-known aircraft in Germany. The fare booked Corendon has not changed its booking system since the last flight in winter and therefore offers

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The new US offensive at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport

Stephen Lorenz July 24, 2022 08:07

In addition to New York and Los Angeles, Washington is to be added to the BER in the second attempt in 2023. Delta is also planning to return to Berlin. The desire to expand long-haul connections seems to be slowly gaining momentum again in Berlin. Just a few weeks after the new Norwegian long-haul low-cost carrier Norse's surprise announcement that it would be flying to two new US destinations from Berlin, United is planning to add a fourth destination airport in the USA from Berlin in 2023 with Washington. With Norse's market entry, the 787 Dreamliners will fly to Kennedy Airport (JFK) from Berlin from next month. This is a new destination airport from BER, which means that two airports in the New York metropolitan area will be on the flight schedule: John F. Kennedy/JFK (Norse) and Newark (United). The Dreamliners, with two classes of seating, will also start a non-stop flight to the west coast of the USA several times a week, bound for Los Angeles/LAX. Now, a few weeks later, United is also announcing an expansion of the BER flight schedule, which was already planned for the summer of 2022. According to current plans, from the end of May 2023, a Boeing 767-400 will take off daily as flight "UA235" in 9 hours 20 minutes directly from Berlin to Washington DC / IAD. United's 767 jets will be equipped with the Polaris business class, which is popular among American FQTV. One "Berlin returnee" could be SkyTeam member Delta Airlines, which has also opened a non-stop connection from BER to New York JFK for booking from the end of May 2023, making it a direct competitor to the 787 Dreamliners from

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