The airline Eurowings has increased its presence at Hanover Airport and launched a new direct connection to the French Riviera last Wednesday. The route to Nice will now be served three times a week, with flights operating on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
This new route complements the existing portfolio of European city destinations and is aimed equally at leisure travelers and business travelers connecting to the economic region in southeastern France. According to Hanover Airport, this inaugural flight marks the start of a comprehensive expansion of the 2026 summer flight schedule.
Eurowings plans to launch another Mediterranean route on May 5th. The airline will then fly to the Spanish port city of Alicante twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. This expansion is part of a strategic realignment of the airline at its base in Lower Saxony, where it is significantly increasing its capacity. In addition to the sunny destinations in Southern Europe, the airline will also add a direct connection to Glasgow later in the season. This move by the Lufthansa subsidiary is a response to the consistently high demand for nonstop flights outside the major hubs of Frankfurt and Munich.
Airport CEO Martin Roll emphasized the importance of this network expansion for the attractiveness of Hanover as a business location. With these new destinations, the airport solidifies its role as a central air traffic hub for Northern Germany. Industry analyses show that by basing additional aircraft in Hanover, Eurowings is further expanding its market leadership in the point-to-point segment. In particular, the development of the Côte d'Azur and the Costa Blanca underscores the focus on high-demand regions that are of central importance for tourism and second-home owners.
Operational preparations for the new routes have already been completed at Hanover Airport. The optimized departure times in the early morning and late morning will also create connecting opportunities for passengers from the wider catchment area. Eurowings will primarily use Airbus A320 family aircraft on these routes, which offer the necessary capacity for medium-haul flights to Spain and southern France. Industry experts view the expansion as a sign of the ongoing consolidation of the air transport market, in which direct connections from regional airports are gaining increasing economic importance.