Before the corona pandemic, Eurowings expanded extremely quickly, possibly even too quickly. The goal was to create a pan-European carrier, but so far only bases outside of Germany have been opened in Salzburg, Pristina and Palma. The one in Vienna-Schwechat was de facto closed.
In the course of the virtually held Capa meeting, company boss Jens Bischof announced that the course would be set for expansion again in the next few years. Eurowings is expected to grow strongly outside of Germany. The focus will be less on business travelers and more on fishing in the leisure segment.
“We have opened further bases, such as in Salzburg and Vienna, in Pristina and also in Palma de Mallorca. And now we are becoming more and more Europe-wide and are adding more bases to them, ”said Bischof during the Capa meeting. The Vienna base does exist on paper, but the range of flights was reduced to Germany-Austria traffic, even before the corona pandemic. Nothing is currently known about the future of the wet lease contract between Austrian Airlines and Eurowings Europe.
Bischof sees the carrier he leads on a par with its competitor Easyjet. Regarding Ryanair, he said that you can't be cheaper than the Irish and you don't have to fool yourself. However, you want to be better than Ryanair. With regard to the optional extras, they consider themselves to be in a better position than the competition. "We may be a bit more expensive, but our sales position is also a little better than that of a Ryanair, and that is reflected in our profitability when we get out of this Corona situation," said Jens Bischof.