Welcome to the Condor News and Discussion thread - 2023 edition.

Please continue to post your news and discussions below.

Link to the locked 2022 edition:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1470353

2023 should be a momentous year for Condor
- fleet renewal on both long and short haul
- new incoming CEO
- ongoing business model transformation

It'll be interesting to see where they go next
- what new long (and short) haul destinations will they announce (will we see Miami which was teased in a recent interview? with Cairo launching in the spring, do they try more metropolitan destinations and/or go into the city break market? Jet2 has done that in the UK and it's worked well for them in a much harder competitive environment)
- what's happening with sister company Marabu, Attestor's new short haul venture
- do they start codesharing

I wish they'd come back to Windhoek but I think Eurowings Discover have that market wrapped up.

PM wrote:

I wish they'd come back to Windhoek but I think Eurowings Discover have that market wrapped up.

You're probably right. They've added Windhoek to the Airlink interline and selling that on their website. It's probably the right decision. Going head to head with Eurowings would be a bloodbath.

Condor has moved to T7 at JFK from T1. Will be co-located with AS and closer to B6, its 2 primary US partners.

https://metroairportnews.com/condor-airlines-moves-into-new-home-at-jfk-airport/

It'll be interesting to see where they move to once T7 closes down.

Condor 757-330 D-ABOL positioned FRA-NWI for painting on 2 Jan 23

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/d-abol

What happened to Condor long haul out of Munich? I remember they used to have a couple of routes to the US and the Caribbean at one point. Wonder if it will ever return or if they are only focusing on Frankfurt long haul now.

3D101CA wrote:

What happened to Condor long haul out of Munich? I remember they used to have a couple of routes to the US and the Caribbean at one point. Wonder if it will ever return or if they are only focusing on Frankfurt long haul now.

They were operating to PUJ seasonally as late as last year but these flights seem to have been dropped. If long haul ever return to MUC, we shouldn't expect more than what you described (a few heavy leisure routes to the Caribbean or Indian Ocean).

Condor have said FRA and DUS will be the focus for long haul going forward. They have quite a significant long haul charter operation out of DUS to both the Caribbean and Middle East, and they were due to resume schedule service to CUN from there this summer but those plans fell by the wayside. Still, scheduled long haul should return from DUS at some point.

D-ANRH, aka Condor's second A339 with the beige 'beach' livery, has entered commercial service with a first flight to Mauritius, like D-ANRA.

https://condor-newsroom.condor.com/en/de/news-article/second-condor-a330neo-takes-off-for-first-commercial-flight/

After passenger complaints over aircraft and crew wet leased from Latvian ACMI provider Smartlynx, Condor will be dropping them. The 2 leased planes will be replaced by an A339 from Air Belgium and an A333 from Wamos.

This affects select FRA-PUJ/JFK/YYZ flights.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/condor-wirft-nach-beschwerden-smart-lynx-airbus-a330-raus-punta-cana

Condor is adding daily flights from Düsseldorf to Prishtina in Kosovo for Summer 2023. These will be charter flights by the look of it, only bookable via travel agents. They are not bookable via the Condor website.

https://www.exyuaviation.com/2023/01/condor-to-launch-pristina-flights.html

D-ABUM, a 767 with one of the Condor retro liveries has been retired.

https://simpleflying.com/codor-retires-retro-livery-boeing-767/

It was a pretty bird. Hopefully Condor will have one of their new planes painted with a retro livery. It's always fun to see them.

Peter Gerber has been announced as Condor's new CEO, replacing Ralf Teckentrup.

He's coming from Lufthansa Group, where he was Brussels Airlines CEO, and Lufthansa Cargo CEO before that.

The handover will take place sometime this year, depending on non-competition clause in Gerber's contract.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/peter-gerber-folgt-auf-ralf-teckentrup-als-condor-chef

A bit more on Gerber, in English this time!

https://www.tourexpi.com/en-de/news/peter-gerber-to-become-condors-new-ceo-187295.html

The brand new A339s are being scheduled to JFK from 13 Feb. and SEA from 16. Feb.

https://airlinenewsdaily.com/2023/02/01/condor-is-bringing-its-new-airbus-a330neo-to-new-york-jfk-and-seattle-tacoma/

A 3rd A339 (D-ANRI) has arrived on property. It is due to enter commercial service mid-month to PUJ.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/condor-hat-dritten-airbus-a330-neo-uebernommen

A339 operations to JFK have started. SEA should follow in a few days, and most other US destinations should see the aircraft this summer. Exciting times!

https://airlinenewsdaily.com/2023/02/14/condor-airlines-brings-its-new-airbus-a330neo-to-new-york/

German airport workers are striking on Friday, with most facilities shutting down completely for the entire day. But not DUS, so Condor is being creative and will be operating a near full slate of long haul flights out of there instead of FRA. Before you ask, the 2 airports are about 180km (110 miles) apart with good train connections, so doable. Better than being stranded wherever in any case. Some short haul flights will move as well. Munich flights will be moving to Nuremberg for the day. Condor will be covering additional train costs to/from the alternate airports.

Reported in aero telegraph (in German):
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/condor-macht-duesseldorf-fuer-einen-tag-zum-langstrecken-airport

Not really new (it's been teased before) but Condor has now started to sell the front row of business class on the A339 as 'Prime Seats'. This is a kind of 'Business Plus' offering.

These seats have more pitch, a larger IFE screen, a full width ottoman, and can be converted into a dining table for 2. You can snatch one starting at 199.99 euros per leg. A clever attempt at upselling IMO.

https://onemileatatime.com/news/condor-prime-seats/

BangersAndMash wrote:

Not really new (it's been teased before) but Condor has now started to sell the front row of business class on the A339 as 'Prime Seats'. This is a kind of 'Business Plus' offering.

These seats have more pitch, a larger IFE screen, a full width ottoman, and can be converted into a dining table for 2. You can snatch one starting at 199.99 euros per leg. A clever attempt at upselling IMO.

https://onemileatatime.com/news/condor-prime-seats/

Oh wow! That looks great. Really like the look of it, and I think $199.99 euros is a pretty good deal.

Some further details have emerged on Marabu, the Attestor-owned sister carrier to Condor.

3 aircraft are due to fly out of Munich and Hamburg this summer. No details on routes just yet, but the Med, the Canaries, and the Red Sea are being mentioned. Nothing overly surprising there. This is staple Condor stuff.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/marabu/nordic-aviation-group-and-german-start-up-airline-marabu-sign-service-agreement/

BangersAndMash wrote:

Some further details have emerged on Marabu, the Attestor-owned sister carrier to Condor.

3 aircraft are due to fly out of Munich and Hamburg this summer. No details on routes just yet, but the Med, the Canaries, and the Red Sea are being mentioned. Nothing overly surprising there. This is staple Condor stuff.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/marabu/nordic-aviation-group-and-german-start-up-airline-marabu-sign-service-agreement/

Now turning into 6 aircraft (3 each in MUC and HAM):
- 3 A320neo operated by ACMI specialist Nordica (2 in MUC, 1 in HAM)
- 2 A321 operated by ACMI specialist Heston Airlines (1 in MUC, 1 in HAM)
- 1 A320neo operated by Marabu itself (based in HAM)

(in German)
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/welche-jets-marabu-nach-hamburg-und-muenchen-stellt

Quite a bit of turbulence lately. A Condor flight to Mauritius was affected. 20 people injured.

https://www.africanews.com/2023/03/02/20-injured-by-turbulence-aboard-germany-to-mauritius-flight//

An article from Aerotelegraph (in German) has some pictures of the damage (use the arrows on the filmstrip to navigate) and some further details:
- the plane involved was D-ANRA, their first ever A339
- the incident happened about 2 hours from landing, over the Comoros archipelago
- most of the injured are from the crew, and people who weren't wearing their seatbelt; some taken to hospital, one with a suspected fracture
- return flight canceled; a replacement aircraft has been sent, with a Special Assistance Team to address any passenger concern

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/so-heftig-waren-die-turbulenzen-im-airbus-a330-neo-von-condor

Condor has announced flights from Düsseldorf to Almería for the summer. 1x weekly from 12 May.

https://aviation.direct/duesseldorf-condor-nimmt-almeria-auf

Condor resuming additional routes to Lanzarote next winter, with Stuttgart and Leipzig joining existing FRA/DUS/MUC/HAM service.

New routes to be served 1x weekly initially.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230306-deace

Condor will be flying from Berlin 4x weekly winter seasonal to Dubai (DWC). These are not bookable on Condor's website or any GDS so likely operated on a charter basis.

This marks Condor's return to Berlin. They had a base at SXF pre-Covid and briefly flew from there in 2020, but the base did not move to BER when it opened.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230307-dedwc

Flights to Agadir will also restart next winter. Last served pre-Covid. From early November, Condor will fly 2x weekly from each of FRA/DUS/MUC/HAM.

https://aviation.direct/winter-2023-24-condor-reaktiviert-agadir-fluege

Condor has announced some of its winter 2023/24 programme
- the Berlin base will be restarted; as well as the previously announced charters to Dubai World Central (5x weekly), scheduled flights to both Hurghada (5x weekly) and Agadir (1x weekly) have been loaded
- the Cologne/Bonn base will also reopen, with flights to Hurghada (4x weekly)
- Condor will fly out of Vienna and Nuremberg in the winter for the first time, with again service to Hurghada (4x weekly each)

https://www.aviacionline.com/2023/03/condor-resumes-operations-at-berlin-and-cologne-adds-new-flights-to-egypt-morocco-and-dubai/

Condor's 1x weekly flight to China (charter only bookable through travel agents) will move from Hefei to Hangzhou from May 1.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/230321-dehgh

Condor is picking up Air France slots in the Dominican Republic (AF is discontinuing service). The country will be served 8x weekly in summer, 10x weekly in winter, across FRA-SDQ/PUJ/POP.

Reported in Aviation Direct (in German)
https://aviation.direct/condor-und-domrep-vereinbaren-partnerschaft

The first Marabu flights have been loaded: HAM-FCO is bookable on Condor's website from May 27 until October 28. 4x weekly by the look of it.

Tip of the hat to debonair

This is certainly unexpected as a route. Not typical Condor fare.

Delete post

Details of flights operated for Condor by leased aircraft from Lithuanian ACMI specialist Heston.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/auf-diesen-strecken-ist-heston-im-sommer-fuer-condor-unterwegs

Also more routes have appeared from Marabu.
DUS-HER - 1x weekly; more flights operated by Condor directly
HAM-FAO - 3x weekly; NEW; not operated by Condor
HAM-FCO - 4x weekly; NEW; not operated by Condor
LEJ-HER - 2x weekly; more flights operated by Condor directly

Unlikely to be exhaustive. Munich was the other base announced (alongside Hamburg) and there is no flying loaded from there yet that I can see.

It seems Condor has dropped Akureyri and Egilsstaðir in Iceland, due to begin mid-May for the summer season. No longer bookable on their website.

BangersAndMash wrote:

It seems Condor has dropped Akureyri and Egilsstaðir in Iceland, due to begin mid-May for the summer season. No longer bookable on their website.

Dubrovnik and Santorini are also gone from this summer's schedule.

Condor has launched an upgrade auction product via the SeatBoost app. Auctions start 24 hours before a flight and cover upgrades 1 class up to both Premium Eco and Business. Limited to select long haul routes for now, but there are plans to expand it across the network.

https://condor-newsroom.condor.com/en/de/news-article/condor-offers-live-auction-for-upgrades-via-app/

Details on the apparent A320neos for Marabu: MSNs 6799, 6849, 6914 and 6967. All four are ex IndiGo.

Photo of MSN6799:



875A3454a (VP-CKN) by Ralph Hamaker, on Flickr

I understand that Condor will be leasing aircraft from Air Belgium (base unknown), European Air Charter (FRA based) and FlyAir41 (DUS based), as well as from a number of other airlines, to cover the summer peak.
Would anyone be able to say which routes these 3 carriers will be operating ?

davidjohnson6 wrote:

I understand that Condor will be leasing aircraft from Air Belgium (base unknown), European Air Charter (FRA based) and FlyAir41 (DUS based), as well as from a number of other airlines, to cover the summer peak.
Would anyone be able to say which routes these 3 carriers will be operating ?

From what I can see (I may well have missed the odd one):
- European Air Charter - base: FRA - aircraft: 3 A320s - destinations: FRA-ACE/AGP/FUE/IBZ/PMI/TFS/XRY/CFU/CHQ/HER/KGS/KVA/PVK/RHO/ZTH/OLB/SUF/RJK/FNC/SPX/EVN
- Flyair41 - base: DUS - aircraft: 2 A320s - destinations: DUS-ACE/AGP/LPA/PMI/TFS/AOK/ATH/CHQ/HER/KGS/SMI/OLB/SUF/SPU/AYT
- Heston Airlines - base: DUS - aircraft: 2 A320s + 1 A330 - destinations: DUS-AGP/LEI/PMI/XRY/ATH/CFU/KGS/RHO/AYT + STR-HER/RHO
- Bulgaria Air - base: STR - aircraft: 2 A320s - destinations: STR-FUE/LPA/PMI/TFS/CFU/HER/KGS/PVK/RHO/HRG

Most of the routes seem to be operated by a mix of wet-leased and Condor's own aircraft, except out of Stuttgart, where Bulgaria Air is pretty much taking over. Not sure where the Heston A330 is being deployed.

Air Belgium flew for Condor this winter, alongside Wamos, but it doesn't look either is due to fly over the summer. Air Belgium was flying FRA-PUJ while Wamos flew FRA-JFK/YYZ, as well as a few rotations on FRA-PUJ. The 2 were brought in at short notice after problems with the previous ACMI provider Smartlynx. I understand this was a short term arrangement while the A339s are being delivered. Out of curiosity, where did you get the reference from?

Bangers - many thanks for the info. I saw the Condor summary at (in German, but Google Translate works well)
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/das-sind- ... -im-sommer

Looking at the schedule, I'm amazed how FRA-EVN has taken off. It will be served 5/6x weekly over the summer peak (mid-May to late October) and it's up to 3x weekly for the shoulder season. Condor seems to have found a real little hidden gem there.

Condor has taken delivery of D-ANRJ, or A339 #5. This is the 100th A330neo delivered.

https://simpleflying.com/airbus-delivers-100th-a330neo-condor/

Marabu will be taking over some frequencies from 7 German airports (FRA, DUS, MUC, HAM, STR, LEJ, NUE) to HER over the summer, as reported by aerotelegraph (in German).

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/marabu-startet-von-fuenf-weiteren-deutschen-flughaefen

Does anybody know to what extent Condor long-haul network relies on LH feeder flights? Can we expect any route cuts in case the codeshare agreement between DE and LH is not prolonged?

LUKAS10 wrote:

Does anybody know to what extent Condor long-haul network relies on LH feeder flights? Can we expect any route cuts in case the codeshare agreement between DE and LH is not prolonged?

Semantics, I know, but it's an interline, not a codeshare (which means LH is getting the full revenue out of any feed it provides).

I haven't seen any stats on the value of that feed, so hard to say which routes might be cut, if any. The thing is, between agreements with tour operators purchasing seats en bloc, as well as agreements with Deutsche Bahn and plenty more air carriers, it's not like Condor is overly dependent on feed from LH.

In any case, both the German and EU competition authorities have repeatedly intervened to stop LH from pulling the agreement. No reason to think this is going to change. Heck, last time it was scrutinised, LH was forced by the Budeskartellamt into offering more generous terms than the existing agreement.

BangersAndMash wrote:

LUKAS10 wrote:

Does anybody know to what extent Condor long-haul network relies on LH feeder flights? Can we expect any route cuts in case the codeshare agreement between DE and LH is not prolonged?

Semantics, I know, but it's an interline, not a codeshare (which means LH is getting the full revenue out of any feed it provides).

I haven't seen any stats on the value of that feed, so hard to say which routes might be cut, if any. The thing is, between agreements with tour operators purchasing seats en bloc, as well as agreements with Deutsche Bahn and plenty more air carriers, it's not like Condor is overly dependent on feed from LH.

In any case, both the German and EU competition authorities have repeatedly intervened to stop LH from pulling the agreement. No reason to think this is going to change. Heck, last time it was scrutinised, LH was forced by the Budeskartellamt into offering more generous terms than the existing agreement.

Thank you very much for your answer.
DE happened to be a very interesting company to follow. They seem to be in a stage of finding its own identity (new fleet, rebranding, new 'less leasure' routes, Marabu,...). I just hope they'll be able to define its business model without following the AB scenario.

LUKAS10 wrote:

BangersAndMash wrote:

LUKAS10 wrote:

Does anybody know to what extent Condor long-haul network relies on LH feeder flights? Can we expect any route cuts in case the codeshare agreement between DE and LH is not prolonged?

Semantics, I know, but it's an interline, not a codeshare (which means LH is getting the full revenue out of any feed it provides).

I haven't seen any stats on the value of that feed, so hard to say which routes might be cut, if any. The thing is, between agreements with tour operators purchasing seats en bloc, as well as agreements with Deutsche Bahn and plenty more air carriers, it's not like Condor is overly dependent on feed from LH.

In any case, both the German and EU competition authorities have repeatedly intervened to stop LH from pulling the agreement. No reason to think this is going to change. Heck, last time it was scrutinised, LH was forced by the Budeskartellamt into offering more generous terms than the existing agreement.

Thank you very much for your answer.
DE happened to be a very interesting company to follow. They seem to be in a stage of finding its own identity (new fleet, rebranding, new 'less leasure' routes, Marabu,...). I just hope they'll be able to define its business model without following the AB scenario.

I agree with you. Condor is an amazing survivor. This type of airline (leisure focused, charter-heavy, across both short- and long-haul) used to be very common back in the days, in Europe anyway. LCCs largely killed that business model by gutting the short-haul side of the equation. Now, it's pretty much Condor, the TUI Group, and Neos in Italy. With Air Transat in Canada. The others are either dead, strictly charter, or small long-haul specialists. The German market helped Condor survive by keeping a strong packaged holidays component. It gives Condor a guaranteed revenue stream and a useful buffer to build a scheduled operation from.

Marabu performed its first revenue flight at the weekend on MUC-PMI.

https://airlinenewsdaily.com/2023/04/17/marabu-commences-operations/

Marabu has announced flights to Tallinn:
- MUC-TLL, 2x weekly, starting 21/05
- HAM-TLL, 2x weekly, starting 16/06

Reported on aerotelegraph (in German)
https://aviation.direct/ab-hamburg-und-muenchen-marabu-nimmt-tallinn-fluege-auf

How many routes are Marabu marketed AND Marabu operated ? Seems like they have just 1 aircraft doing just routes from MUC