Dubai: Lufthansa, Europe’s second-largest airline, announced €99.99 introductory fares for its new long-haul venture, Eurowings, to Dubai on Wednesday.
The airline will fly to Al Maktoum International at Dubai World Central (DWC) from Cologne Bonn Airport, in Germany’s east, from October 25, Eurowings said in a statement.
Fares will start at €99.99 one-way.
“We are not presumptuous to think that we could challenge Emirates with two weekly flights to Dubai given the massive capacity they have,” Karl Ulrich Garnadt, who heads Lufthansa’s passenger business, told Bloomberg in an interview in Berlin where the announcement was made.
Eurowings will offer 620 seats per week between Dubai and Cologne compared to the 3500 weekly seats offered by Emirates to the German cities Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
“This is not a provocation; I believe Emirates won’t even notice this.” The venture will start out with promotion prices, which will soon be raised, he said.
Lufthansa has in the past openly opposed the growth of the three major Gulf airlines, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways.
The German airline decided in October to axe its Abu Dhabi service citing increased capacity from fellow German carrier Air Berlin, in which Etihad owns nearly 30 per cent.
Eurowings will be the second European low cost carrier flying from DWC in the emirates south. Hungary’s Wizz Air was one of the launch carriers from DWC when passenger flights started in October 2013.
The new Eurowings brand is based on Lufthansa’s Germanwings airline, a low cost airline in Germany and Europe.
Eurowings will also fly to Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand and Caribbean cities Varadero, Bridgetown and Punta Cana.
The Eurowings fleet will initially consist of two long-haul aircraft Airbus A330-200 and later expanded to seven.
SunExpress Deutschland, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, will operate the long-haul route aircraft on behalf of the new Eurowings. Vienna has been chosen as the first definite location outside of Germany as a new Eurowings base.
