Eurowings adds seven new routes in Dortmund and second based aircraft
Eurowings launched not one, not two, but three new routes from Dortmund on Wednesday 2 June (to Alicante, Catania and Malaga), with service to Kavala in Greece beginning the following day, Naples the day after that, and finally Heraklion on Sunday 6 June. An additional Greek route to Rhodes is set to be added in early July. These seven new routes join the airline’s existing services from Dortmund to Munich, Palma de Mallorca and Split.
As a result, Eurowings is now basing a second Airbus aircraft at the airport. One of the aircraft regularly based in Dortmund is D-AIZR, which is painted in a special livery promoting the local football team, Borussia Dortmund. The team, once managed by both Jürgen Klopp (now at Liverpool) and Thomas Tuchel (now at Champions League winning Chelsea), has once again qualified for next year’s Champions League by finishing third in this year’s Bundesliga, though sadly 14 points adrift of champions (again) Bayern Munich.
Eurowings and its predecessor germanwings have had a presence in Dortmund since June 2007 when Lufthansa’s in-house LCC began service to Faro, Ibiza, Istanbul SAW, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna. In October 2007 further routes were added to Munich, Split and Zagreb. The following summer Ankara, Bastia and Zadar flights were added, though Ibiza flights were discontinued. Salzburg became the airline’s 12th route in October 2009, though several routes were also discontinued that summer. A second domestic link to Heringsdorf in northern Germany was added in May 2014 but only operated for one season. With the addition of the seven new routes this summer that brings to 20 the number of destinations ever offered by Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary from Dortmund.
Eurowings and Ryanair both much smaller than Wizz Air in Dortmund
Eurowings is vying with Ryanair to be the second biggest carrier in Dortmund this summer, with the Irish ULCC planning to operate seven routes from the airport this summer; Katowice, Krakow, London STN, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Thessaloniki and Vienna. A new route to Zagreb is set to start in September. However, the biggest carrier in Dortmund this summer is Wizz Air, which now accounts for almost two-thirds of seat capacity at the airport and is offering service to almost 50 destinations this summer. Wizz Air’s impressive development at the airport is worthy of separate analysis in due course.
