German budget airline Eurowings maintains growth momentum

BERLIN, April 11 (Xinhua) -- German budget airline and Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings continued growing in the first quarter of 2018 (Q1), the company told the press on Wednesday.

"The first quarter went well for us, March in particular was extremely positive," a statement by Eurowings chief executive officer (CEO) Oliver Wagner read. "We remain Europe's fastest growing airline", Wagner added.

According to Eurowings, passenger numbers grew by more than 40 percent in Q1, while the wider airline market only expanded at a relatively modest rate of between four and five percent. The budged airline hereby profited from higher demand caused by the bankruptcy of its rival Air Berlin.

Lufthansa has acquired around half of all 144 planes formerly operated by Air Berlin in an effort to further boost the development of Eurowings. Wagner expressed optimism on Wednesday that the upward trend experienced by his company at the start of the year would last into the summer.

Eurowings is in the process of expanding its presence at the Munich International Airport to serve around 40 destinations, including long-haul flights to the United States and Dominican Republic. Wagner announced that capacity at the regional hub was set to double to ten planes.

It remained unclear on Wednesday whether Eurowings would also take over additional planes of the former Air Berlin subsidiary Niki from June onwards as suggested by earlier reports. Wagner told the press that he was still in talks with Niki's current parent company Laudamotion. Enditem