Eurowings phases out final CRJ900, becomes all-Airbus operator

Rapidly expanding Lufthansa Group low-cost (LCC) subsidiary Eurowings has phased out its last Bombardier CRJ900, becoming an all-Airbus operator and closing its history as a regional carrier.

Eurowings operated its last 90-seat CRJ900 flight Feb. 15 from Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden to Hamburg, Germany. All 23 CRJ900s have all been replaced with Airbus A320s.

The LCC has operated all versions of the CRJ regional jets, including 23 -200s, two -700s and 23 -900s. Together, all its CRJs operated 560,400 flying hours without any accidents.

“Eurowings is growing faster than the [European aviation] market itself,” Eurowings MD Michael Knitter told ATW recently. “Not only with more aircraft, but also by exchanging our 90-seat Bombardier regional jets with 180-seat A320s.”

Lufthansa established Eurowings as a pan-European LCC platform, which should grow quickly to 100 aircraft as competition from LCCs such UK’s easyJet, Ireland’s Ryanair, and Spain’s Vueling increase to a 50% market share in Europe.

(Kurt Hofmann - ATWOnline News)