Germanwings will Kapazitaet auf CGN-DUB-Strecke verdoppeln

[PHXFlyer]

Aktuell aus der irischen Sunday Business Times:

 

Germanwings to double Dublin-Cologne flights

 

08/08/04 00:00

 

By Tina-Marie O'Neill

Germanwings, the low-budget German airline, will double its number of flights between Dublin and Cologne over the next year.

It has extended its service all year round due to high demand.

 

The airline, in which the German national carrier Lufthansa owns a 49 per cent indirect stake, launched the Dublin-Cologne/Bonn route at the end of February and has flown more than 30,500 passengers on the route up to the end of July. The flights operate four days a week.

 

Airlines offering direct flights to Germany from Dublin include Lufthansa, Aer Lingus and the German airline, Hapag Lloyd. Aer Lingus operates services to Dusseldorf, near Cologne.

 

Cathy Burke, Aer Lingus market development manager, said: ``The number of people flying from Dublin to Germany has increased by 26 per cent to 300,000 in the first six months of this year, which is an increase of nearly 60,000 passengers from the corresponding period last year.

 

Germanwings has contributed to the increase.''

 

Germany's rail company, Deutsche Bahn, recently opened a high-speed intercity train service from Cologne/Bonn Airport to Dusseldorf, a journey that takes 38 minutes.

 

``Visitors to Dusseldorf are nearly better off flying to Cologne and getting the train up,'' said Gordon Jenner, international market manager at Germanwings.

 

``Over 25 per cent of passengers flying from Dublin to Cologne are Irish, and most of them are business passengers,'' said Jenner. ``The seat capacity on the route has been at 82 per cent on average and 96 per cent in the last two weeks.''

 

The airline will focus on Cologne's Christmas markets and shopping districts when it launches an advertising campaign with FM104 next month.

 

It is also finalising contracts to launch a campaign with a supermarket chain, which it declined to name.

 

``About 5,000 Irish people visited the Christmas markets in Cologne last year,'' said Andreas Engel, media director at Germanwings. ``We want to double that number this year.''

 

The two-year-old airline serves 35 cities across Europe and carried 1.5million passengers in the first six months of the year, 43 per cent more than the same period last year.

 

Its sales for the first half of the year, at €101 million, are up 80 per cent on last year's interim figures. The airline expects full-year revenues of €230million, from which it expects to make a profit of about €1 million.

 

Fares start frome19, including taxes and charges, and the airline will continue to offer these low fares, despite the current hikes in global oil prices.

 

``We bought our oil in advance in line with Lufthansa,'' said Engel. ``We have oil capacities until May 2005. At the moment the prices are high, so we're waiting until October or November.

 

``If they don't drop then, we'll wait until February or March. If prices are still high in April and May it may be a problem, but we'll have to buy regardless.

 

``But we promise that our entry fare will always be €19 including taxes and fees no matter what the oil prices are.''

 

The airline's long-term plan is to take over Lufthansa's lucrative European business destinations as the national carrier concentrates on transatlantic routes.

 

Cologne/Bonn Airport has contracted ATA, formerly American Trans Air, to offer low-cost long haul flights from the airport to the United States from next May.

 

 

Die Sitzladefaktoren, die in dem Artikel genannt werden, sind wirklich erstaunlich. Bemerkenswert ist auch die Tatsache, dass der Anteil am Inbound-Verkehr nach CGN hier deutlich ueber dem Durchschnitt liegt.

Interessant, aber nicht ueberraschend ist die Tatsache, dass Germanwings offenbar eine Einkaufsallianz mit Lufthansa hat, um bessere Preise beim Treibstoff-Hedging zu erreichen.

[Ich86]

Interessant finde ich auch folgendes:

 

The airline's long-term plan is to take over Lufthansa's lucrative European business destinations as the national carrier concentrates on transatlantic routes.

[GM.AMS]

Interessant auch, dass sich das ganze in einem anderen Artikel ganz anders liest (scotsman.com vom 11.August'04), dort heisst es nämlich, dass man es bei vier wöchentlichen DUB-CGN-Flügen für den Winter belassen will und den 4U-Verkehr ab DUB allgemein auf zweimal täglich ab Sommer 05 erhöhen will - durch Einführung einer DUB-STR-Verbindung:

 

"A German airline plans to run twice-daily flights from Dublin to Germany by next summer as a direct rival to Ryanair, it revealed today.

 

German Wings, which was established in 2002, recently overtook the Irish carrier as the top low-cost airline in Germany.

 

The Lufthansa offshoot carried 30,000 passengers on its daily Dublin-Cologne route since February and will maintain up to four flights a week for the winter season.

 

Deputy managing director Andreas Bierwirth told a Dublin press conference today that it plans to expand to two flights a day next summer as part of its growth strategy.

 

He said: “We will continue to fly into Cologne but will also open up a new route into Stuttgart.

 

“Ryanair is spending a lot on advertising in Germany but we are now carrying more passengers.”

 

The firm employs 80 of its 400 employees at a call centre in Dublin.

 

Ryanair already flies into its Frankfurt-Hahn hub from Shannon and Farranfore Airport in Co Kerry."

 

***

 

Welcher Artikel/Autor nun Recht hat, vermag ich nicht zu beurteilen.

 

Groetjes,

Guido

 

 

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: GM.AMS am 2004-08-12 22:32 ]

[franzl79]

Kann es eigentlich sein, daß Mama LH auch ein Callcenter in DUB betreibt bzw. betrieben hat?

[GM.AMS]

@franzl: Immer noch betreibt. Und Germanwings scheinbar auch. Und United auch. Und und und...

 

Groetjes,

Guido

[PHXFlyer]

@ Guido: Wirklich interessant, diese beiden Versionen, wobei mir schottische tatsaechlich glaubhafter erscheint.

Trotzdem sind LF's ueber 90% ein Indikator dafuer, dass man zusaetzliche Kapazitaet einbringen sollte. STR ist nicht unbedingt eine Alternativflughafen zu CGN, sondern allenfalls ein weiteres Angebot.

Wenn CGN-DUB so gut laeeuft, dann muss man auch auf dieser Strecke reaagieren, und wenn es Germanwings nicht macht, dann eben ein anderer. Ploetzlich erscheint mir das HLX-Geruecht bezueglich Dublin in ganz anderem Licht ...

[ATN340]

...oder EZY geht ex CGN mal direkt auf Rheinair...verzeihung...Ryanair los, wenn man die Erklaerung aus den Vergangenen Tagen zu Rate zieht