Lufthansa’s Eurowings goes to America; will the pilots unions allow US DoT to issue an exemption?

On 16-Jul-2015, Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings applied to the US Department of Transportation for a foreign air carrier permit to operate between Germany and the US. Eurowings is Lufthansa's chosen low cost vehicle to operate on long haul routes.

The company, Eurowings Luftverkehrs AG, has applied to fly between Cologne, Germany, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida , commencing "on or about" 27-Mar-2016, next year's summer season.

A wrinkle to the application is that the Fort Lauderdale service will initially be operated as a wet lease by a subsidiary of Lufthansa-Turkish Airlines' JV LCC, SunExpress. Pilots unions - whose opposition has been influential in blocking a similar long haul low cost operation by Norwegian Air International - will undoubtedly have reservations about this new entrant, especially operating under wet lease. No doubt EU officials, seriously miffed over the Norwegian approval delays will be watching closely to see whether Eurowings will have a similarly rocky road.