City Airlines, the new regional airline of the Lufthansa Group, has had its debut in service rescheduled for the summer of 2024.
The carrier had the layout of its planes revealed on Wednesday, displaying the same livery as Lufthansa, however, with the addition of the term “City” in a lighter shade of blue.
As with other subsidiaries, there is also the inscription “Member of Lufthansa Group”.
The new airline, which was founded in 2022 and received its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the German Federal Aviation Authority in June, will begin recruiting operational staff next month, focusing on pilots and cabin crew.
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The flights will be operated from the Munich and Frankfurt hubs as Lufthansa feeders. City will also have a synergy with Lufthansa CityLine, the company explained.
In a statement, the group stated the need to strengthen its competitiveness on short-haul routes. Although it is not mentioned verbatim, the main competitors are low-cost airlines that fly in Europe.
Lufthansa also implies its intention to migrate pilots from the group to the new company, whose salaries and benefits are expected to be lower than those of airlines in operation today.
“For Group employees interested in switching to City Airlines, offers with voluntary switching conditions can be negotiated. This includes, in particular, Lufthansa CityLine personnel,” the text says.
CityLine has an agreement with unions that prevents it from operating aircraft with more than 75 seats from 2026.
“With City Airlines, we want to create prospects for the coming decades and secure sustainable jobs in Germany. This is the only way for us to grow and sustainably strengthen the hubs in Munich and Frankfurt,” sayd Jens Fehlinger, Managing Director of City Airlines .
Undefined fleet
City Airlines will begin flying Airbus A319 aircraft transferred from other companies in the group. The plan, however, is to have a fleet of more modern jets.
Lufthansa confirmed that it is evaluating both the Airbus A220, currently in operation at Swiss, and the Embraer E2, a new generation of E-Jets that are in service at some of its subsidiaries.
The expectation is that at least 40 jets will be ordered, as revealed by the group’s CEO, Carsten Spohr.
