Lufthansa Group Thinks It Has an Answer to Ryanair's New German Incursion
Skift Take
Lufthansa Group is about a decade late in realizing the European low cost carriers are a massive threat. But it's good to see the company trying to do something about it and expanding its Eurowings operation.
For years, as low cost airlines have grown in Europe, the Lufthansa Group mostly has stuck to what it knows best — carrying business travelers and higher-end leisure customers from its four key hubs, Zurich, Vienna, Frankfurt, and Munich, to key world capitals in Europe and elsewhere.
But like every other legacy airline group in Europe, Lufthansa, which owns Lufthansa Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Swiss International Air Lines, is feeling more squeeze than ever before from discounters like Ryanair and EasyJet. So after making some half-hearted attempts in recent years to try to compete with lower cost airlines, Lufthansa Group is telling investors it finally has an aggressive plan to thwart the competition.
Lufthansa will grow its low cost subsidiary, Eurowings, in the coming years, hoping passengers will choose it over better-known competition. The airline is not new — it started flying in 1994, and Lufthansa Group assumed control about a decade ago — but until recently it has been a bit player, with a fleet and cu
