German airline Lufthansa has confirmed talks are continuing with Star Alliance partner Turkish Airlines over plans to develop a low-cost long-haul airline.
The airline said it wants to roll out the new budget service in autumn 2015 using three Airbus A330-300s in Munich, Dusseldorf or Cologne. It has plans to “complement the Group’s product range” with up to seven Airbus A330-300s for the new concept.
The low-cost long-haul service could be based on airline Sun Express, which is a fifty-fifty joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish. Sun Express is a Turkey-based airline that offers scheduled and chartered flights in various destinations in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Lufthansa said the focus to start with will be on destinations that “promise above-average growth” in the leisure travel market, which do not compete with Lufthansa Group airlines’ existing route networks.
The plans come as Lufthansa looks at ways to improve its budget offering to hit back at competition from Middle East airlines and low-cost carriers.
It has approved plans for the transition of a more “economical type” of aircraft at Eurowings, its low-cost subsidiary, with an order for 10 Airbus A320ceos.
“Replacing the current Eurowings fleet of Bombardier CRJ900 regional jets with modern A320ceo aircraft will further increase the Düsseldorf-based airline’s unit cost advantage and will thereby improve its ability to compete with low-cost airlines in Europe,” Lufthansa said in a statement.
The airline said it intends to use its Wings concept to “cement its good market position in passenger traffic in its home markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium in the long term, including point-to-point connections”.
It added that business in these routes, away from the major hubs, is “characterised by above-average growth in the leisure travel segment and by stiff competition from rapidly expanding low-cost airlines”.
Lufthansa’s CEO and chairman Carsten Spohr, said: “The combination of our core brands’ focus on quality and the premium sector, and the development of new platforms for the leisure travel sector, which is experiencing dynamic growth but is also price-sensitive, is our way of working towards a successful future for the Lufthansa Group airlines.
“This would strengthen the successful multi-hub system comprising the key hubs of Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna and Brussels,” he added.
“This strategy additionally gave the company the scope to also grow in sectors of this kind, where the Lufthansa Group’s traditional quality brands were not able to participate in market developments.”
Lufthansa.com