Germany's Eurowings plots A320neo debut in late 1Q22

Germany's Condor calls off Berlin base plans

Eurowings maintains leisure focus, A319s still needed

Italy's Sky Alps buys four more Dash 8-Q400s

Sky Alps (BQ, Bolzano) has acquired four ex-LGW - Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter DHC-8-Q400s in a transaction arranged by Airstream International Group, implementing its plan to grow its turboprop fleet.

OE-IMP (msn 4234), OE-IMQ (msn 4239), OE-IMR (msn 4245), and OE-IMT (msn 4250) are of 2008-2009 vintage and have all been parked at Bratislava since March 2020, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows. The aircraft were part of a batch of 20 units initially leased by airberlin group and subleased to LGW, and then were taken over together with LGW by Lufthansa Group after the collapse of the former owner. LGW operated them briefly on behalf of Eurowings. All of the aircraft were returned to their lessors by 2021.

The four De Havilland Aircraft of Canada turboprops were owned by Nordic Aviation Capital through the NAC Aviation 9 Limited special purpose vehicle, which is currently in liquidation. Airstream International Group was appointed to remarket them by liquidator Declan Taite.

Sky Alps launched in...

Germany's EW Discover to rebrand

EW Discover (Frankfurt International) - the long-haul leisure specialist in the Lufthansa Group - is planning to rebrand to address market confusion with Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf), its sister carrier that focuses on low-cost short-haul routes in Europe, according to business daily Handelsblatt.

The rebranding will include a change of name and livery. Citing unnamed sources close to the airline, Handelsblatt reports the Eurowings suffix will be dropped from the name, and the purple colour scheme will likely be replaced with a shade of blue, closer to Lufthansa's core brand colour.

A Lufthansa Group spokeswoman confirmed to ch-aviation: "The aim is to further sharpen the profile of Eurowings Discover as the Lufthansa Group's Quality Leisure Airline in Germany and to position the airline clearly in the vacation and private travel segment. In this context, it was also decided to further develop the existing brand. We will inform you about further details in due course."

Once rebranded, plans are to return the airline to profitability, according to Handelsblatt. Results of EW...