Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) will consolidate its long-haul operations in Düsseldorf from Winter 2018, relocating all A330-200s from Cologne/Bonn to the airport airport further north.
The low-cost unit of Lufthansa Group announced it will expand its long-haul base at Dusseldorf gradually from the current one B767-300 (wet-leased from PrivatAir (Switzerland) (Geneva)) based out of the airport to four long-haul aircraft in April 2018. For the summer period, three A330-200s will continue to operate from Cologne/Bonn but will be relocated to Dusseldorf after the peak season ends.
All seven Eurowings' A330-200s are operated by SunExpress Deutschland (Frankfurt International) in addition to the currently wet-leased B767-300.
Eurowings had previously announced that three of its A330-200s will be deployed in the summer to Munich.
Following the consolidation, Eurowings will launch services out of Dusseldorf to Fort Myers Southwest Florida and Havana International, among others, filling the market gaps left after the bankruptcy of Air Berlin (1991) (Berlin Tegel). Already on April 28, it will also launch the route to New York JFK, which will be operated by SN Brussels Airlines with an A340-300. The Belgian airline will in total operate two A340-300s and one A330-300 on behalf of Eurowings out of Dusseldorf.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Eurowings currently operates 30 long-haul flights per week from Cologne/Bonn and only eight from Dusseldorf. In the summer, the schedule will be much more balanced with 18 weekly departures out of Cologne/Bonn, 16 out of Dusseldorf, and 15 out of Munich for the week starting on July 16.
The carrier is also currently the only airline serving long-haul flights out of Cologne/Bonn, operating out of this gateway to 16 leisure-oriented destinations.
Eurowings is planning to maintain a strong presence in Cologne/Bonn but intends to focus on the short- and medium-haul markets. Plans are currently underway to add a further three A320 Family aircraft to the base, bringing it to a total of nineteen narrow-body Airbus jets stationed at Cologne/Bonn.
