Eurowings

[Masbroughlad]

Yesterday I flew home from Dusseldorf to Manchester.

I booked with Germanwings, taking advantage of their SMART fare which included luggage, refreshments and reservable seats.

When choosing seats, the layout on offer was on a plane of the Boeing 737 ilk or similar (3 either side of the aisle).

I never thought anymore about it until we left the departure gate to get to the plane.......

The plane we were to fly on was, let's just say, rather small. No walkway to the plane, no mobile steps. Instead, 5 small steps up to a tiny plane! Passengers with luggage for the cabin had it taken off them and put in the hold just before boarding - literally on the runway at the side of the plane!

It turns out the craft was a CRJ900, operated by Eurowings. I have to say the service was good, the plane modern, clean and comfortable albeit small. Only thing that didn't happen were any announcements at all by the captain/flight deck.

So, my questions are (for any aviation fans please)....

- Who are Eurowings exactly?
- Are they anything to do with Germanwings?
- Do Germanwings use them if they can't fill a plane or it is out of service?
- What is their fleet?
- Do they operate in their own right or just through Germanwings?
- Was my Dusseldorf to Manchester flight supposed to be a larger craft?
- Was there any reason why the flight deck made no announcements, all being done by the stewardesses?

I have to say, if it allows flexibility to substitute smaller (larger?) aircraft if a plane cannot be filled (has excessive bookings) it seems a great idea. Or is this route always a small plane?

Do Germanwings just use the layout of a 737 on their booking engine and just block out seats on it if they know a smaller craft is used? I had booked seats C and D - either side of the aisle. A, B, E and F were shown as unavailable (The CRJ 900 had a strange numbering plan for seats - two seats either side of the aisle - A and C on one side, D and F on the other - no B and no E).

I have no issues with any of this as the flight experience was brilliant. Just interested in the operational side of this!

 

[starrymarkb]

Eurowings is basically an offshoot of Lufthansa, originally it was a separate airline that did contract flying of small jets for Lufthansa Regional. Lufty purchased them outright a few years ago. Most of their aircraft are in Lufthansa livery with some in their own.

Their Fleet is all CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet) variants though they used to run the BAe 146

Germanwings was originally started as an offshoot of Eurowings in the initial low cost rush again they are now part of Lufthansa. Lufthansa use them for non hub operations now (ie anything that isn't Frankfurt or München based) as they are cheaper to run then Lufthansa Mainline

My understanding is that the Eurowings name is going to replace Germanwings as the trading name for Lufthansa's low cost operations (current Germanwings, Eurowings and a new Long haul project from Köln) though for now they will remain as three separate airlines in a legal sense. Moving more stuff to Low Cost offshoots is causing big Union issues at Lufthansa Mainline

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do Germanwings just use the layout of a 737 on their booking engine and just block out seats on it if they know a smaller craft is used?

It does sound like.

I had booked seats C and D - either side of the aisle. A, B, E and F were shown as unavailable (The CRJ 900 had a strange numbering plan for seats - two seats either side of the aisle - A and C on one side, D and F on the other - no B and no E).

It's quite usual (though not 100% universal) that a narrowbody aircraft uses ABC DEF, where A and F are always windows, and C and D always aisles, and you just miss out the letter you aren't using. That way people know what a seat is by looking at the letter alone.

You get something similar on widebody jets. I *think* the standard is for ABC DEFG HJK (no I, like railway coach letters, to avoid confusion with 1) to be used on a 747 10-across layout, then for E or F (forget which) to be dropped for a 9-across 777. Though it isn't 100% consistent - KLM, for instance, annoyed me once by swapping a 9-across 777 for a 10-across 777 and in doing so made my window seat a middle (they drop K on their 9-across 777s). Though fortunately nobody took the window so I moved there.

Neil

 

[jopsuk]

reading on Wikipedia, it appears Eurowings are entirely replacing their CRJ900s with A320s. If they're currently running both types as a mixed fleet, then blanking out B & D makes the seat allocation easier with respect to windows/aisles (also may mean lucky passengers are getting 320s booked as if they were CRJs).

As an aside, I really hope I never travel economy on a 777 with 10-across seating- they're about 30cm narrower inside than a 747!

 

[Bletchleyite]

As an aside, I really hope I never travel economy on a 777 with 10-across seating- they're about 30cm narrower inside than a 747!

I'm not a small person at all, but I actually found the ones on the Air Canada 777-300ER quite reasonable. But if there were two me-sized people sitting next to each other it could be quite uncomfortable.

Neil

 

[WestCoast]

Lufthansa seems to have more sub-brands that I can keep track of! The route used to be Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings up until the switchover to Germanwings last year.

As far as I know, and flightmapper.net confirms this (reliability not 100%), it's always booked as a CRJ900. Whether it's upgraded to larger types occasionally, I'm not sure. It's a business orientated route, so it's more likely to suit the smaller aircraft at higher frequencies. The only direct competitor is Flybe, who run similarly sized Embraer E175 jets and Bombardier Q400 turboprops on the route. If you're used to A320s/737s they will seem small, but they're quite large compared to some of the 19 seater puddle jumpers I've flown with Citywing to the Isle of Man.

Regarding the announcements, it depends on the airline, it seems to be standard procedure on airlines like BA and easyJet for the flight deck to make announcements. On other airlines, it seems to be optional on shorter routes, although I seem to remember Lufthansa being quite chatty.

 

[Jonny]

I'm not a small person at all, but I actually found the ones on the Air Canada 777-300ER quite reasonable. But if there were two me-sized people sitting next to each other it could be quite uncomfortable.

Neil

The last time I was on a 777-300ER I was OK for room (in economy) despite my being broad-shouldered and travelling with similarly broad-shouldered relatives. The 777 has the advantage (for horizontal space) of being single-deck, though.

 

[Julian W]

If you found the crj900 small then you probably wouldn't enjoy the crj200 - it only has 10 rows or so of seats!

I always wonder how such small aircraft can make money for airlines compared to high density 737s or similar.

 

[starrymarkb]

The small CRJs are very hard to make money with = British European found that out in the early 2000s and ended up dumping them for more props.

They are big in the US, but that's more for political/union issues rather then economic. (the fleet loses money hand over fist in fuel but makes up for it with insanely low crew costs because the flights are subcontracted - A RJ First Officer in the US will probably earn about £14K pa - compared with an Easyjet FO's 50-60k - US Unions insist on anything over a certain capacity being operated in house)

 

[jopsuk]

it's always booked as a CRJ900. Whether it's upgraded to larger types occasionally, I'm not sure.

As they're directly replacing the whole fleet with 320s, then (until that's complete) I'd assume there's few sure fire ways of knowing which services will be CRJs and which will be 320s.