Condor Adds New Short Haul Flights To Feed Reshuffled US & Canada Network

There have been plenty of changes at Germany’s Condor Airlines
recently as the carrier announced several network adjustments in light of its new market environment, characterized by an almost complete rejig of its long-haul network to the United States and Canada. In an announcement on Friday, Condor revealed that it would be boosting flights to its upcoming new European destinations in an effort to cater to the transit traffic from its remaining long-haul flights to and from North America. In other words, Condor’s exclusive focus on leisure traffic is largely long gone as it continues to build its hub-and-spoke model to compete against peers such as Lufthansa
.

Separately, but not at all unrelatedly, the European Commission stated earlier this week that it would seek to oblige Lufthansa to provide feeder traffic from its short-haul flights to fill Condor’s Frankfurt Airport
to New York JFK Airport
route in an attempt to safeguard a competitive market environment on a route where Lufthansa and its partners would otherwise have an even more significant advantage.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

New European flights

Condor’s new Europe flights will depart from its Frankfurt (FRA) hub in order to facilitate connections to its 12 North American gateways this summer. As of March, Condor will offer flights to:

• Rome (and Palermo)
• Milan
• Paris
• Zurich
• Vienna
• Berlin
• Hamburg
• Munich

Condor says that it had previously featured connecting options to Spain and Greece as well as other European flights through its “interline agreements with partner carriers,” one of the most important of which was its contract with Lufthansa. It is worth noting that many of the destinations that Condor will now launch flights to are Lufthansa Group hubs or strongholds. Further details on the new routes are listed below.

As shown, Condor has planned both morning and evening flights for Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Zurich, Milan, Prague and Paris services. Only one daily flight will be offered to Rome in the afternoon, which continues onwards to Palermo.

Photo: Angel DiBilio | Shutterstock

Condor’s new strategy

Historically, Condor was able to benefit from feeder traffic from Lufthansa’s services into Frankfurt, a deal that the latter was forced to continue due to monopoly concerns on long haul flights from Germany. However, last month it emerged that Lufthansa was no longer bound by that agreement, and sought to suspend it as a result. Left unfed, many of Condor’s flights to the US simply made no sense on their own, and several were therefore suspended. This includes flights to six destinations across North America, including Baltimore, Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Antonio, Edmonton, and Halifax.

Related

Condor Rejigs Long-Haul Network Completely As US & Canada Flights Are Cut

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Condor had already announced that it would be adding flights to eight new European destinations after rising airport fees in Germany prompted yet another network rethink on the Condor end. The carrier ultimately felt that basing some aircraft outside of Germany would make more financial sense. Palermo is the only brand new destination, first revealed in yesterday’s announcement, while all other flights have seen frequency increases from daily to double daily. Peter Gerber, CEO of Condor said:

“We have already noticed that Condor’s inter-European flights are extremely popular and are now responding to this increased demand by expanding our route network. With these measures, we are consistently developing our business model and gradually creating more alternatives for customers.”

While the airline was not able to provide an exact estimate of how many passengers it expected would be connecting on its new European flights, a Condor spokesperson did tell Simple Flying that in general there “is a large number of leisure travelers from the U.S. and Canada do connect in Frankfurt to popular leisure destinations such as Rome, Paris, Berlin, etc.”

The airline’s US and Canada network for this summer includes flights to:

• Anchorage
• Boston
• New York JFK
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• Portland
• Seattle
• San Francisco
• Vancouver
• Calgary
• Toronto

The EU Commission’s helping hand

The European Commission announced on Friday that it felt it necessary that Condor regain access to Lufthansa’s short-haul network to facilitate connections on its Frankfurt to New York JFK route. The Commission says this would ensure a competitive market environment. It says that “the adoption of interim measures enabling Condor to continue offering its services on that route is warranted to prevent serious and irreparable damage to competition from occurring in that market.” In response, a Condor spokesperson told Simple Flying:

Condor acknowledges the EU Commission’s announcement and welcomes its legal opinion. We will now examine the announcement in detail and cannot provide any further comment at this time.

Photo: Condor

Lufthansa had informed Condor in 2020 that its special pro-rate agreement (SPA) that allowed the leisure airline to benefit from the German flag carrier’s short-haul network, would come to an end. The airlines introduced “transitional SPA-based arrangements” in the meantime, which were eventually no longer applicable as of December 2024. The Commission believes that without Lufthansa’s support, Condor “may no longer be capable of operating sustainably on the Frankfurt-New York route and be forced to definitively exit.”

Lufthansa says it is reviewing the Commission’s decision and does not agree with its position.