Lufthansa is allowed to start Eurowings Discover

Lufthansa can take off with its new low-cost holiday airline Eurowings Discover this summer. The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt has issued the operating license and the Air Operator Certificate (AOC for short) for the youngest airline in the group, Lufthansa announced in Frankfurt am Main. It starts on July 24th with a long-haul flight from Frankfurt to Mombasa and from there on to Zanzibar. Medium-haul destinations such as the Canary Islands should follow the winter flight schedule. Previously, travel destinations such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Mauritius were also discussed. In contrast to the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings, Eurowings Discover will start at the major Lufthansa hubs - initially in Frankfurt and in 2022 also in Munich. This allows customers to use feeder flights from other group airlines. Three long-haul jets are supposed to start. By mid-2022, the fleet is expected to grow to 21 aircraft - including 10 medium-haul Airbus A320s and 11 A330 long-haul aircraft, all of which are already part of the group. According to the spokesman, Eurowings Discover has now hired around 500 pilots and flight attendants. On long-haul routes, the new airline is primarily competing with the German holiday airline Condor, which has also relied on feeder flights from the Lufthansa Group companies for its long-haul flights. After Lufthansa terminated its cooperation with Condor last year, a dispute broke out. In the meantime, the Federal Cartel Office is investigating whether Lufthansa has abused its market power against Condor by terminating the contract. Both companies have now put their dispute on hold and extended their contract until May 10, 2022. Eurowings Discover should work at significantly lower operating costs than the core brand Lufthansa. Even the planning for the project had led to a violent dispute with the flight crew's unions because of the lower collective bargaining conditions compared to the group.