Germanwings (2nd) Airbus A319-112 D-AKNU (msn 2628) PMI (Ton Jochems), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Lufthansa (Frankfurt) is turning over most of its European routes to its discount subsidiary Germanwings (2nd) (Cologne/Bonn) at Stuttgart.

Here is the statement by Lufthansa:

“Lufthansa and Germanwings are moving closer together in Stuttgart from next year and thereby improving the services they offer customers from Baden-Württemberg. In future, the two airlines will harmonise their flights and coordinate more closely the services they offer in their route networks. From summer 2012, Germanwings will serve all European destinations for Lufthansa out of Stuttgart. German domestic destinations will still be served by both carriers. Flights to Berlin will be operated by both airlines in a coordinated timetable. Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich will be served exclusively by Lufthansa, while Germanwings will operate services to Bremen, Dresden, Hanover, Rostock and Leipzig.

In February 2012, Lufthansa will transfer to Germanwings the first of its European flights on the Stuttgart-London Heathrow route. This will increase capacity on the route by 50 percent to 150 seats per flight, as Germanwings deploys an Airbus A319 on the route compared with the Contact Air Fokker 100 with only 100 seats, which Lufthansa has up to now operated on flights to Heathrow. In the course of summer 2012, Germanwings will take over from Lufthansa further routes out of Stuttgart. Aside from London, these include Bilbao, Brussels, Manchester and Milan-Malpensa.

Furthermore new European destinations, like Venice, Catania and Dubrovnik will be added to its flight schedules. Bremen, a new destination in the domestic network, will also be served by Germanwings. Seating capacity on these routes will also be raised significantly through the use of larger aircraft. The timetable changes will increase the number of destinations served by Germanwings from Stuttgart by nine to a total of 48. To accommodate this increase, the airline will station ten aircraft in Stuttgart.

Stuttgart is a key role model for the Lufthansa Group. With the two brands in closer cooperation, an array of combinable routes, the accrual of Miles and More status miles by customers of Germanwings from January 1, 2012 and more closely coordinated marketing of flights in corporate business travel and on the internet, the Lufthansa Group is improving its services.”

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems.

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