Condor to BRU?

[Atlantis]

Today, we could see a post on Luchtvaartnieuws, that the CEO of Condor, Peter Gerber, is interested to fly to BRU.

They operating already to 2 other hubs, which is Zurich and Vienna.

From Vienna they offer leisure destinations.

Curious what they would like to do here? Just city connection or starting more leisure flights? That would be crowded as SN, TUI, Transavia, Vueling and Ryanair offers already many options and destinations.
Or maybe long haul leisure destinations as TUI stepped out from it?

[brabel]

I think they just want feeder for their long haul.
Don't see them start leisure routes from here.

[oldblueeyes]

They have 20 widebodies to fill in FRA and need connecting pax.

[Miqvell]

... since their partnership with Lufthansa has ended.

[BrightCedars]

Interesting! Unless they are going to operate leisure flights to European destinations out of BRU, providing feed to their FRA long-haul is going to be challenging, what frequency would be required? They don't have anything smaller than an A320 so filling that twice-thrice a day might be a challenge for two cities that don't have that much O&D appeal in the first place, particularly FRA.

[OO-PDM]

Most of their city-flights are 2-3 times a day, so if they actually came to Brussels, we could expect something like that. When it comes to your point of filling those planes, I think, if their pricing is right, they could actually do it. Condor has quite an extensive network of leisure destinations such as Mauritius, Phuket and the Caribian but they also have more mixed destinations such as Miami, Cape Town and Los Angeles. This summer season they also wet-lease 4 E190's and 2 A319's, which could work on feeder flights to Brussels. IF their pricing is right, I am sure they could threaten some of the LHG feeder traffic to Lufthansa's and Discover's Frankfurt flights. They could certainly do it for the (price sensitive) leisure travellers and if they could partner with IAG or AF/KLM or another big frequent flier program, they could probably even take some business travelers.

If Condor play it right they could do some damage to the dominant position of LHG at FRA.

[sn26567]

Peter Gerber's love for Brussels dates back to the time he was Brussels Airlines' CEO.

[koninckske]

Just sad that airlines always look to enter on routes that already exist. More of the same every time.

Antwerp Airport should try to convince them to get this connection on their leased E190s. Certainly now with TUI loosing any intrest in ANR.

And yes I know very small chance of this happening...

[oldblueeyes]

Most of their city-flights are 2-3 times a day, so if they actually came to Brussels, we could expect something like that. When it comes to your point of filling those planes, I think, if their pricing is right, they could actually do it. Condor has quite an extensive network of leisure destinations such as Mauritius, Phuket and the Caribian but they also have more mixed destinations such as Miami, Cape Town and Los Angeles. This summer season they also wet-lease 4 E190's and 2 A319's, which could work on feeder flights to Brussels. IF their pricing is right, I am sure they could threaten some of the LHG feeder traffic to Lufthansa's and Discover's Frankfurt flights. They could certainly do it for the (price sensitive) leisure travellers and if they could partner with IAG or AF/KLM or another big frequent flier program, they could probably even take some business travelers.

If Condor play it right they could do some damage to the dominant position of LHG at FRA.

Let's see first if they'll survive.
They tried to escape out of the leisure market but by moving towards a network carrier they may loose efficiency.
Still have to prove that they can earn money.

[OO-PDM]

Most of their city-flights are 2-3 times a day, so if they actually came to Brussels, we could expect something like that. When it comes to your point of filling those planes, I think, if their pricing is right, they could actually do it. Condor has quite an extensive network of leisure destinations such as Mauritius, Phuket and the Caribian but they also have more mixed destinations such as Miami, Cape Town and Los Angeles. This summer season they also wet-lease 4 E190's and 2 A319's, which could work on feeder flights to Brussels. IF their pricing is right, I am sure they could threaten some of the LHG feeder traffic to Lufthansa's and Discover's Frankfurt flights. They could certainly do it for the (price sensitive) leisure travellers and if they could partner with IAG or AF/KLM or another big frequent flier program, they could probably even take some business travelers.

If Condor play it right they could do some damage to the dominant position of LHG at FRA.

Let's see first if they'll survive.
They tried to escape out of the leisure market but by moving towards a network carrier they may loose efficiency.
Still have to prove that they can earn money.

True, and for that I think they need a partner (AF/KLM, IAG or some else)

[oldblueeyes]

They need a partner rather on short term as they still have to pay back some loans, thus the leading investor tries to find somebody to inject the necessary cash, ideally an airline.
Something similar to the Air Europa situations some motnhs ago.

The other question is where the strategic fit would be.

Marabu is a pure leisure line, something that would fit bette with Pegasus, AnadoluJet and similar players.

Most of Condors long haul was historically in a niche , feeded by Lufthansa. Now there feeders are gone and Condor neets to establish it's own feeder netowrk and is facing competition from Discover. As they tried to enter on higher traffic routes and catch the end of the tail from Lufthansa, they would fight against them.

Furthermore Discover is starting next year the onboarding of A359 - they may compete against Condor in the future not with nearly amortized old 333 but with brand new aircraft.

AFKLM would benefit more from a hub somwhere in Eastern Europe, whilst IAG actually does not need the Condor type of business - towards east the priority is rather to keep Qatar the best option and catching pax for Caribbean leisure is something Iberia or Level could do as well.