Airways Magazine September 2024 | Page 66

AIRWAYS FEATURE
13 Airbus claims that the A330neo replaced previous generation aircraft in Condor ’ s fleet to reduce operating costs as well as fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 25 %. // SAN ANTONIO AIRPORT
unusual destinations in the United States like San Antonio ( SAT ) and Baltimore ( BWI ), and even Anchorage ( ANC ) and Fairbanks ( FAI ) in Alaska . These cities differ greatly from the usual sunny and warm destinations with splendid beaches that you mostly find on Condor ’ s schedules , and their populations are relatively small .
In fact , during the high season , Condor even operates flights to the tiny Canadian city of Whitehorse , the population of which barely surpasses the 28.000 mark . That ’ s less than half of the population of Cheyenne , Wyoming , or the island of Guernsey , in the Channel Islands off the coast of France .
Why did Condor consider flying to these remote locations
to start with , and how does it maintain a profitable business on these routes from Frankfurt ?
“ Flying to mid-size cities has always been in our DNA ”, said Mikko . “ We want to be the first airline to serve these cities with direct connectivity to Europe . In San Antonio , we ’ re able to say that we ’ re the first-ever airline flying non-stop to Europe , and no one is going to take that away from us .”
“ When you look at Whitehorse or Fairbanks ,” he continued , “ the Germans love to go to the northern parts of Alaska and Canada and explore the wilderness , so it also works really well with our vacation DNA .”
Vacations are not the only reason behind the curious presence of these destinations
on Condor ’ s map . In the case of San Antonio , the airline found that a substantial German community has resided there since the 19th century , at one time making up roughly onethird of the population .
The resulting cultural heritage and identity conserved in the city since create sufficient demand for Condor to operate non-stops from Germany . The connections are , of course , economically boosted by codeshare agreements and partnerships with carriers like Alaska Airlines , Lufthansa , and the recently announced WestJet and Emirates .
Finally , the world-class fuel efficiency performance provided by the Airbus A330neo significantly reduces the costs
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66 AIRWAYS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2024 www . airwaysmag . com