It seems there are various ways to scare Lufthansa – be you friend or foe – with EasyJet announcing it is to open a base at Hamburg Airport.
The base will operate ten new routes, which start from 30th March 2014 – and grows from that point – including:
Commencing 30th March 2014
– Naples
Commencing 31st March 2014
– Copenhagen
– Milan Malpensa
– Nice
– Palma Mallorca
Commencing 1st April 2014
– Catania
– Venice
Commencing 2nd April 2014
– Athens
Commencing 24th June 2014
– Ibiza
– Split
EasyJet has a fair sized operation into Hamburg, with routes from the United Kingdom including:
– Edinburgh
– London Gatwick
– London Luton
– Manchester
Whilst it may not scare Air Berlin a lot – there is a target, and its name is Germanwings (the low cost carrier segment of Lufthansa), who are still trying to make short haul Europe pay its way.
There is significant route overlap already to the UK, and with the addition of these new routes – there will be a lot more route overlap, giving choice where there was minimal choice before.
Maybe enough to scare Germanwings a fair amount…
Want to keep up with me at GhettoIFE? Join me either by signing up for my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter @GhettoIFE for when there are posts to the blog!
With this move Easyjet is exposing Lufthansa’s very flawed strategy. Treating cities like Hamburg and Berlin as second class cities by no longer serving them with Lufthansa flights other than feeders to Frankfurt or Munich. It’s arrogant frankly of Lufthansa to assume that competitors won’t go after them and consumers won’t do business with others.
There is no way that I’m flying German Wings as I can’t support Lufthansa’s strategy with my money. What are they thinking?