Lufthansa Group has confirmed that its forthcoming no-frills carrier serving routes within Germany and Europe will operate under the Germanwings banner.
The carrier announced plans to create a short-haul budget brand last month, but at the time said a decision on the name of the operation would be made “in the upcoming months”.
This decision has now been made, with the existing Germanwings brand being used for the new low-cost model serving point-to-point services on domestic German and European routes.
The new business model will launch in January, but will not apply to point-to-point services operated through Lufthansa’s two main hubs of Frankfurt or Munich, which will remain under the Lufthansa brand.
The group said that the unified budget carrier would be “repositioned as a quality product - reasonably priced but not cheap - in the low-cost segment in an upgraded ‘new’ Germanwings”.
Lufthansa added that the carrier’s extended flight schedule and new brand identity will be “fine-tuned over the coming weeks” before being revealed in December.
Group CEO Christoph Franz said: “With this strategic move we are establishing an important precondition for restoring our European flight operations to profitability.
“With an enhanced brand identity and a corresponding product, Germanwings will combine all our point-to-point operations outside our hubs in a separate company. However, in order to achieve sustained success, it is important that we together with the unions and employee representatives can maintain the cost-effectiveness of Germanwings operations.”
Up to 30 aircraft currently serving Lufthansa point-to-point routes will be transferred to Germanwings in January.
The group also confirmed that its regional subsidiary Eurowings would continue, but will operate flights on behalf of Germanwings in the future.
lufthansa.com
germanwings.com