Only time will tell…
The German leisure carrier is about to experience some turbulence. Lufthansa recently decided to terminate its agreement whereby Condor operated “feeder” flights to link up with LH operations at FRA. Condor decided to appeal the decision. Unfortunately, the courts ruled in favour of the national carrier. So, what does this mean?
The airline will no longer operate its flights between Germany and multiple US airports after the German Federal Court of Justice overturned a ruling requiring Lufthansa to provide feeder flights to the airline's network. Routes affected are FRA-BWI, MSP, PHX and SAT. Also YEG and YHZ in Canada. However, Condor will still serve JFK, BOS, MIA, LAX, SFO, SEA, PDX, LAS and ANC. Also YYZ, YYC and YVR in Canada.
The news marks a particular loss for the San Antonio region as Condor's flight connecting SAT-FRA was the area's first non-stop route to Europe.
Aviation media and enthusiasts are already wrongly predicting Condor’s demise. The latter mostly wanting rid of that unique livery. After all the hard work the airline put in to survive the Thomas Cook Group collapse, it will be interesting to see how they tackle this problem. The German Government gave financial aid before, but would they do it again, especially when faced with EU opposition?
In the interests of fairness, let’s look at LH and recent growth. The main company is Lufthansa Group. Under its control is Lufthansa, Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa City, Eurowings and Discover operating flights from Germany. The group also includes Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Air Dolomiti, Austrian, Edelweiss. Then there’s Sun Express, a joint venture with Turkish Airlines. The number of joint ventures worldwide are just too many to mention. One criticism levelled at LH Group management is that the home-based airlines are competing against each other.
Nothing in aviation is ever simple!
In other news…
Emirates – despite the very freezing weather, large numbers of EDI spotters turned out to welcome the first A350-9 flight on 3 January.
Jet2 – time to close the final pages of the airline’s B757 story. With no more flights planned for G-LSAK it’s likely the aircraft will head to DGX on 6 January. G-LSAI is carrying out her final passenger carrying flight today (5 January), before leaving for DGX on 8 January. It’s reported that this aircraft will overfly MAN and LBA, wing waves anticipated!
Finally…
Emirates – if you thought airlines didn’t look at YouTube, then think again! The Middle East carrier has recently taken to other social media channels to allay passenger fears about safety. The cause, a content creator published a video showing an Emirates aircraft crash. To the uninitiated, it would cause alarm as the graphics are very good. However, the best thing to do is delete this type of content. Whether YT will take any action remains to be seen, as they don’t appear to have sensible processes in place to deal with complaints!
Information courtesy of Newsweek, Emirates
Images courtesy of Condor, GoTravelYourWay
©TPSC, LadyJet2 and photo/diagram suppliers