germanwings

Germanwings has been awarded an important prize for e-commerce, at the 2008 German Multimedia Awards held in Berlin recently. The budget airline received the 2008 German Multimedia Award for its germanwings.com portal, making the Germanwings website the most successful e-commerce platform of the German tourist industry.

"We are very pleased with the award and look upon it as an incentive for the further development of innovative and user-orientated web concepts", said Thomas Winkelmann, spokesman for the board, who received the prize last Wednesday evening in Berlin.

The airline portal offers a wide range of pages, simple booking procedures and clear structures. Innovative sales tools such as the savings calendar, "blind booking" and the interactive route map make booking easy. The German Multimedia Award (DMMA) has been awarded since 1996 to excellent online-, offline- and terminal applications that represent examples of innovativeness and productiveness of interactive media.

Germanwings has already received many international prizes for the design of its online pages. In February 2008 the budget airline was awarded the "Web Oscar" in Miami for the best implementation of an interactive online gambling game and Germanwings has been the official prizewinner of the Webby Awards in the area of design and innovation. At the end of May 2008 Germanwings won the iF Design Award for the most well designed and user-friendly website.

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings it to adopt a new price system for luggage to increase fairness in its pricing structure. The budget airline continues to rigorously pursue its cost saving policies by charging passengers only for services they actually use.

According to the new price system travellers with hand luggage will still be flying at prices starting from 19 euros including taxes, fees and charges. Those checking in heavy luggage will pay  a surcharge of five euros for every item of luggage, this charge will go towards the airline’s rising fuel costs. Registration of each piece of luggage online, at a call centre or travel agent is free, however registration at the airport will cost ten euros per item. As a countermove Germanwings will be raising its excess luggage allowance from the present 20 to 23 kilograms per passenger. 

With its new price structure for luggage Germanwings is adopting the European standard for budget airlines: the core product is the flight and extras such as food, drink or luggage are charged separately. Thus each passenger will pay only for the services actually used.

The luggage surcharge is also an attempt by Germanwings to reduce the overall weight of its aircraft in the face of record oil prices. Every additional suitcase on board increases the weight of the aircraft which raises fuel consumption. Passengers travelling only with hand luggage will pay the same as before.

Families and holidaymakers will benefit from these new regulations since Germanwings will be charging for excess luggage at the rate of seven euros per kilogram on bags weighing more than 23 kilograms.

The regulations in detail: for flights booked on 19 May 2008 or later, a surcharge of five euros will be made for each item of luggage checked-in if the booking is made on the Internet, at a call centre or at a travel agency. Registration at the airport will cost ten euros per item of luggage. The charge for excess luggage remains seven euros per kilogram. In future this amount will be charged only when luggage weighs more than 23 kilograms, previously 20 kilograms of free luggage were allowed. The total maximum of 50 kilograms of luggage per passenger remains unchanged.

The new regulations do not apply to flights booked before 19 May 2008, even if bookings are changed after the cut-off date.

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings, Europe’s favourite airline, has announced a new preferred seat booking option to replace the free-choice onboard system.
The reservation fee per seat and route is just five Euros. FlexPlus-customers and holders of the Germanwings-Card can reserve their seats free of charge. 
 
The preferred seat can be selected during booking on the Internet up to 24 hours before departure. Following ticket purchase reservation is also possible at the call-centre or at the airline ticket desks inside the airport. During web-check-in customers can book their seat themselves coveniently and free-of-charge between 24 and three hours before departure. While for traditional check-in, passengers will be assigned a seat without prior reservation.

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings is permanently reducing fares for children with immediate effect. 

Ticket prices for children between the age of two and twelve have been cut by 33% compared to the adult fare and children under the age of two now fly for a flat-rate service charge of ten Euros.

Germanwings is delighted to announce this price reduction which has resulted from the high level of demand for low-price flights for young children following a recent short term offer.

COLOGNE/BONN –Germanwings today announced its latest monthly turnover figures for December 2007.

Passenger numbers:
December 2007: 566,952 (+4.5 per cent)
December 2006: 542,810

Seat load factor:
December 2007: 78.0 per cent (-2.5 per cent)
December 2006: 80.5 per cent

Thomas Winkelmann, CEO Germanwings, commented:

"Germanwings performed impressively during a difficult month for the low cost airline market - comparing favourably with competitors. We reached a record passenger number for December, with an increase of 4.5 per cent above the same month last year; and carried close to 567,000 passengers. Fleet utilisation remained at a stable 78 per cent”.

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings today announced its latest monthly turnover figures for November 2007.

Passenger numbers:
November 2007: 561.917 (+5.0 per cent)
November 2006: 535.237

Seat load factor:
November 2007: 74.8 per cent (-3.2 per cent points)
November 2006: 78.0 per cent

Spokesman for the Board of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann commented:
“Germanwings was once again able to increase their passenger numbers during November. Passenger numbers for the quality low cost carrier rose by five per cent to over 561,000 guests. Seat load factors remained at a high level of 74.8 per cent with Germanwings maintaining its leading position in the German market”.

Turnover figures for September 2007: Germanwings increases passenger numbers and fleet utilization

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings today announced its latest monthly turnover figures for September 2007.

Passenger Figures:

September 2007: 764.222 (+15.8 per cent)
September 2006: 659.791

Seat load factor:

September 2007: 84.6 per cent (+0.9 per cent points)
September 2006: 83.7 per cent

Spokesman for the Board of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann commented:

"Germanwings successfully maintained solid and stable growth in terms of both passenger figures and fleet utilization during the course of September.  Passenger numbers again saw a two digit growth of 15.8 per cent to over 764,000.  Seat load factor also increased 0.9 per cent to 84.6 per cent.  Germanwings therefore held its leading position among German low cost airlines.”

Germanwings increases passenger numbers by 18.6 per cent and achieves one of the highest seat load factors to date for 2007

COLOGNE/BONN – 11 September, Germanwings today announced its latest monthly turnover figures for August 2007.

Passenger Figures:

August 2007: 781.442 (+18.6 per cent)
August 2006: 658.842

Seat load factor:

August 2007: 84.7 per cent (-0.8 per cent)
August 2006: 85.5 per cent

Spokesman for the Board of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann commented:
"Germanwings continued to demonstrate a two digit growth margin into August. Passenger figures for this quality low cost airline increased by 18.6 per cent which equates to over 781.000 guests. Germanwings has impressively consolidated its prominent position in the low cost carrier market. The Germanwings seat load factor was at 84.7 per cent, currently the highest percentage amongst German low cost airlines."

Germanwings extends “Flex Plus” tariff to routes outside Germany

COLOGNE/BONN – Germanwings, has launched new flexible fares across selected European routes.  A special “Flex Plus” tariff, which was previously only available for business travellers on routes within Germany, has been expanded to selected international routes to allow passengers to make alterations at short notice free of charge, or cancel the booking.

The move demonstrates the budget airline’s response to the high demand for the existing Flex Plus offer, which was introduced in Germany in March 2007. Over 40 per cent of Germanwings passengers are business travellers, representing the single largest group of customers.  The new service offers passengers greater convenience and flexibility in planning trips, which business travellers in particular find beneficial.

The Flex Plus tickets are available from only 169 euros for internal flights within Germany. International flights, such as Stansted to Cologne, costs as little as £199 and Stansted to Stuttgart, costs from £209.

The Flex Plus tariff will be extended to other typical business travel destinations in the Germanwings Europe-wide network, including Zurich, Vienna and Milan, with no charges for rebooking and the possibility to make a cancellation.  Flex Plus tickets are also eligible for double points, as part of the airlines Boomerang Club loyalty scheme.

Spokesman for the Board of Germanwings, Thomas Winkelmann, welcomed the extension of Flex Plus to the European flight network: “The new tariff offers our business customers the greatest possible freedom at a low-cost price, he said.”