Condor & Lufthansa Feeder Flight Drama: Good News For Condor!

A few weeks ago, German airline Condor announced that it will be cutting half a dozen transatlantic routes in the summer of 2025. There was more to the story that met the eye, and the cuts involved the unusual relationship between Condor and Lufthansa. While Lufthansa had won an early court victory against Condor, it looks like Condor might just be in luck, thanks to a ruling by the European Commission.

The complicated Condor & Lufthansa relationship

There’s a lot of history between Germany’s two largest airlines, Lufthansa and Condor. When Condor was founded back in 1955, Lufthansa was actually a shareholder in the company, and the airlines cooperated closely. Lufthansa basically viewed Condor as its leisure partner.

Over time that changed, and in the early 2000s, Lufthansa sold its Condor shares to Thomas Cook. When Thomas Cook went out of business, Condor ultimately became independent.

It has been a really exciting several years for Condor, as the airline has evolved in an incredible way. For example, Condor has replaced its outdated Boeing 767-300ERs with Airbus A330-900neos, offering an impressive passenger experience. Furthermore, the airline has increasingly started competing more directly with Lufthansa in long haul markets, flying between Frankfurt (FRA) and major cities in North America, ranging from Los Angeles (LAX), to Miami (MIA), to New York (JFK).

Here’s the thing, though — Condor is kind of reliant on Lufthansa. Frankfurt isn’t actually a huge market independently (especially for a leisure airline!), but rather the reason it’s such a big aviation hub is because of the size of Lufthansa’s presence there.

Up until now, Lufthansa has provided feeder traffic for Condor, at specially negotiated prices. Condor largely fills its planes with passengers connecting to and from Lufthansa flights. In other words, if you’re flying from Rome to Seattle, Condor will sell you a ticket with the Rome to Frankfurt segment on Lufthansa, and the Frankfurt to Seattle segment on Condor.

So, why would Lufthansa agree to provide feeder traffic for Condor, its biggest competitor in the country? Well, because it has legally been required to do so. The government has required Lufthansa to provide this reasonably priced connectivity to Condor in order to ensure competition in Germany. For years, Lufthansa has been trying to get out of this arrangement, as you might expect.

Regulators take differing stances on this partnership

For years, Lufthansa has been in court trying to get the right to discontinue its feeder relationship with Condor. In late December 2024, the airline succeeded, as Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in favor of Lufthansa, and against Condor and anti-trust authorities.

On the surface, this meant that Condor was no longer entitled to preferential pricing on Lufthansa feeder flights. This would’ve had major implications for the carrier’s business model, and it’s why Condor started to slash some transatlantic routes.

However, Lufthansa’s victory didn’t last for long. Today (January 15, 2025), the European Commission has informed Lufthansa that it needs to reinstate its feeder agreement with Condor, at least as an interim measure. Why? Well, the European Commission is alleging that Lufthansa’s transatlantic joint venture (which also includes Air Canada, United, etc.) unfairly restricts competition, particularly in the Frankfurt to New York market.

For Lufthansa, this might be a case of “careful what you wish for,” and of winning the battle but losing the war. It seems that if Lufthansa chooses to end its feeder flight agreement with Condor, the airline will be looking at a lot more scrutiny for its transatlantic joint venture, and that’s definitely not something that Lufthansa wants investigated too closely, given that it’s arguably the most lucrative aspect of the carrier’s business.

Only time will tell how this plays out. Will Lufthansa just voluntarily keep the Condor partnership going, in order to avoid trouble with its transatlantic joint venture? Or will this be litigated endlessly, and could end with a victory for either party?

One thing I can say with certainty is that Lufthansa has a very dominant position in Germany, and that’s not good for consumers. Furthermore, competitors just haven’t had much luck in Germany, whether it’s global German carriers like airberlin, or European regional ultra low cost carriers, like Ryanair.

How could Condor move forward without Lufthansa?

A large percentage of Condor’s long haul passengers connect to or from Lufthansa flights. If Lufthansa were able to fully cut ties with Condor, it would be absolutely devastating for the airline. Yes, Condor is actually starting to operate more feeder flights, presumably in its biggest markets.

For example, the airline will fly from Frankfurt to places like Berlin (BER), Milan (MXP), Prague (PRG), Rome (FCO), and Zurich (ZRH). But even that won’t fully make up for the amount of connectivity lost.

Condor is cutting six transatlantic routes specifically because of the initial court ruling. So obviously these were also the markets that were most dependent on connecting traffic from Lufthansa.

Condor is a really well run airline nowadays, and ultimately I trust the current management team would find a way to evolve, even if Lufthansa were able to cut ties with Condor.

Obviously transatlantic leisure demand is huge, but Americans usually want to visit Greece, Italy, and Spain, and not Germany.