The new Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings Discover will take off with four Airbus A330s. In the summer of 2021, eight long-haul destinations will initially be offered from Frankfurt am Main, announced Chief Revenue Officer Marco Götz at ITB Now.

According to Chief Commercial Officer Helmut Wölfel, the four machines come from the Lufthansa Group's inventory. But he did not want to reveal where exactly these came from and whether it was an A330 that was previously operated by SunExpress Germany. He also did not comment on whether two Airbus A330s will be moved from Edelweiss to Eurowings Discover. The Swiss sister will be at least temporarily operate a pure A340 fleet.

Eurowings Discover will offer three classes of transport on board: Economy, Premium Economy and Business. Wölfel described the A330 aircraft as ideal and it had "proven itself" in terms of reliability and size. The corona pandemic was not the decisive factor in the long-haul tourist business, which was previously operated as Eurowings - by SunExpress Germany and Brussels Airlines - and Lufthansa "Jump" - carried out by Cityline - was to be repositioned. In fact, the project, still known as Ocean, was already known before the crisis.

Condor vs. Eurowings Discover or state aid versus state aid?

But now it is in the crossfire of criticism for various reasons: The unions accuse that Lufthansa would pursue tariff flight, because Eurowings Discover does not have any collective agreements. So far SunExpress Germany, Germanwings and indirectly also the airline Walter including jobs have been sacrificed. On the other hand, the route network is suspiciously similar to that of the former sister Condor. The feeder contracts for this holiday airline were terminated in order to be able to feed Eurowings Discover in the future. Condor is suing against it before the court of the European Union and brought one too Lodge a complaint with the Federal Cartel Office.

In this context, there is a third aspect that should not be disregarded: Condor was repeatedly pumped full of money by the German state, otherwise the former Thomas Cook subsidiary would no longer exist. The vacation plane is currently on the move looking for money again and, according to unconfirmed rumors, are again in talks about further state aid. The Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, which is owned by the Federal Republic of Germany, already has a lien on all Condor shares. Lufthansa was saved from collapse by the German state with nine billion euros. Now both companies have to compete with each other with financing from taxpayers. So far, Condor has managed to present itself as a "victim that is completely through no fault" through skillful communication. Condor has never been able to deal with competition, because the "long-distance hopping" from airport to airport, which has been carried out in recent years, shows that it is very difficult to prevail against competitors. Lufthansa is now attacking - with financial support from taxpayers - with Eurowings Discover at the Condor home base in Frankfurt.

Cheap long haul has not been successful so far

The fact that the Eurowings long-haul route was a financial disaster for Lufthansa has literally disappeared due to the corona pandemic. The group was giving away a three-digit million amount with the aggressive Eurowings expansion, which is hardly in the consciousness anymore in view of the daily losses that Corona has brought about. The fact that the name Eurowings with the addition Discover is chosen for the new product seems downright obscure, because both Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof and his group colleagues from Eurowings Discover insist that there should be two completely separate airlines. One also wants to make this clear by using different two-letter codes. Eurowings Discover flies under 4Y - Eurowings under EW.

In addition to the seven summer destinations already known, an eighth was added on Wednesday during ITB Now with Calgary. This destination is to be offered three times a week from Frankfurt am Main in the summer of 2021. Around 350 employees will be deployed at the start. The majority of this should come from other areas of the group. For example from SunExpress Germany and Germanwings, which was dissolved. The livery is not a big hit either, because under the Eurowings title the word “Discover” is simply written in blue letters.