Eurowings Discover secures license, prepares to launch flights

Computer rendering of an Airbus A330 in Eurowings Discover livery. Image: © Lufthansa Group

New German leisure carrier Eurowings Discover has been given the green light to launch its first route, starting next month.

It received its Air Operator Certificate from the German Federal Aviation Authority on Wednesday, June 16th, the company confirmed on Thursday. The approval comes just in time for the summer holiday season.

Eurowings Discover says it will launch flights on July 24th, with the inaugural service heading from its hub Frankfurt to Mombasa and Zanzibar in Kenya and Tanzania. Further destinations to be launched in the coming months include Punta Cana and Windhoek (starting in August), as well as Las Vegas and Mauritius (starting in October). For the winter season, the airline will add Varadero, Bridgetown and Montego Bay to its flight plan and launch its first non-long-haul routes to the Canary Islands, Morocco and Egypt.

It will receive up to eleven aircraft this year, including Airbus A330 and A320. The fleet will then grow to 21 aircraft by summer 2022, according to the airline. This fleet growth will also introduce new destinations, with Salt Lake City, Fort Myers, Cancun, Panama City, Halifax, Kilimanjaro and Victoria Falls being added during the first half of the coming year.

Even though Eurowings Discover uses a branding highly similar to existing low-cost carrier Eurowings, the two Lufthansa-owned companies are separate from each other. The new leisure-carrier will be based at Lufthansa-hub Frankfurt, with Munich joining next year as a secondary hub, whereas Eurowings primarily operates from other airports across Germany, currently offering only short- and medium-haul flights.

Eurowings itself had previously offered several long-haul connections from Dusseldorf, Munich and Frankfurt, but the group scrapped the operation at the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis in 2020. These flights were operated by Brussels Airlines and discontinued airline SunExpress Germany.

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