With considerable fanfare, Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Eurowings launched its base in Prague on Sunday 31 October. Two aircraft are now based at the Czech airport, an A319 (registration OE-LYX) and an A320 (registration OE-IQC). In the first week of operation nine new routes have been launched, to complement the airline’s existing 12-weekly service from Düsseldorf. Two additional routes are set to launch before the end of January 2022.
The new routes launched during the first week are (competing airlines):
Malaga: launching on 4 November, 3-weekly (Ryanair, SmartWings)
Milan MXP: launched 31 October, 4-weekly (easyJet)
Tenerife TFS: launching on 6 November, weekly (SmartWings)
All routes face direct head-to-head competition, with two routes (Barcelona and Malaga) already being served by two other airlines, and Copenhagen being served by three. Now may be a great time to visit Prague if you live near Copenhagen! Ryanair and SmartWings both compete on three routes, easyJet on two, and Aegean Airlines, Czech Airlines, Jet2.com, Norwegian and Vueling on one each.
In addition, a 3-weekly service to Tel Aviv is set to begin on 22 December, while a weekly Zagreb service is currently set to start in mid-January, though the launch date for this has already been pushed back twice.
Room for more flights based on current schedule
For the week commencing Monday 8 November, Cirium Data and Analytics shows Eurowings operating 37 flights from Prague, 25 from the two Prague-based aircraft and a further 12 from Düsseldorf-based aircraft.
Source: Cirium Data and Analytics for w/c 8 November 2021.
The two aircraft appear to be somewhat under-utilised on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Schedule data for December suggests that the aircraft will be completely idle on those days. In January there are currently set to be 28 weekly flights on the locally based aircraft, increasing to 33 in February and 35 in March.
More German links coming soon
Two other German routes (Cologne Bonn and Hamburg) are included in the airline’s press release referring to 14 routes being offered from Prague this winter. Eurowings and its predecessor germanwings have served Prague non-stop from Cologne Bonn from March 2003 until March 2020. Non-stop service is set to resume from 4 March 2022 according to Cirium data. Hamburg was previously served from March 2014 to March 2019 and then again in September and October of this year. However, the service is being discontinued over winter and then resuming 4-weekly at the end of March 2022.
More new routes announced for next summer
While celebrating the launch of its new base, Eurowings unveiled a list of new destinations that will be served from Prague next summer with non-stop flights; three in Spain, two in Greece and one each in Cyprus, Portugal and Sweden. They are:
Alicante (weekly from 27 March): not served by any carrier in S21
Heraklion (weekly from 1 May): served by Aegean Airlines and SmartWings in S21
Corfu (weekly from 7 May): served by Ryanair and SmartWings in S21
Faro (weekly from 7 May): served by SmartWings in S19
Larnaca (2-weekly from 2 April): served by Cyprus Airways and Wizz Air in S21
Palma de Mallorca (2-weekly from 29 March): served by Ryanair and SmartWings in S21
Stockholm Arlanda (4-weekly from 27 March): served by Czech Airlines, Norwegian and SAS in S21
Valencia (2-weekly from 30 March): will be served by SmartWings in S22
Eurowings also mentioned in its press release that it would be offering flights from Prague to Rome. However, this service will require a connection at one of the airline’s German airports. Rome was served non-stop from Prague in 2021 by both Ryanair and Wizz Air.
With considerable fanfare, Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Eurowings launched its base in Prague on Sunday 31 October. Two aircraft are now based at the Czech airport, an A319 (registration OE-LYX) and an A320 (registration OE-IQC). In the first week of operation nine new routes have been launched, to complement the airline’s existing 12-weekly service from Düsseldorf. Two additional routes are set to launch before the end of January 2022.
The new routes launched during the first week are (competing airlines):
