Two Australians are among the 150 passengers feared dead after a Germanwings plane crashed in the French Alps overnight. while search and recovery operations has been suspended due to weather conditions.
The Airbus A320 was carrying 150 passengers, including two babies, when it crashed in southern France en route to Düsseldorf, Germany from Barcelona, Spain.
The Lufthansa subsidiary is a low cost carrier, and earlier this month in a meeting with officials from Lufthansa in Frankfurt, was described to Travel Weekly as a “new Germanwings” which will have operational changes in 2015 to better compete in the growing LCC market. The all-economy class carrier was set up to target customers of European budget carriers Ryanair and easyJet.
Lufthansa, Germany’s flag carrier, has used Germanwings for its short-haul flights across the country since 2012, except flights from main hubs of Frankfurt and Munich to save costs on domestic and short-haul international routes such as Düsseldorf to Newark and Chicago. Germanwings currently flies to 117 destinations in 31 countries.
As part of the restructuring and relaunch of Germanwings in 2013, 30 Lufthansa aircraft was transferred to the airline and a further 23 aircraft operated by Eurowings covering Lufthansa flights not flying out of the Frankfurt and Munich hubs was also incorporated into Germanwings.
However in January, the Lufthansa Group announced the Germanwings brand would be removed from public appearance and integrated into the rebranded former parent company Eurowings – to remain as an airline operating on behalf of Eurowings.
Most of the 83 aircraft Germanwings operates are Airbus A319 and A320 jets, and AirlineRatings.com gives them a 6 out of 7 stars on its website for safety. This is the first major incident for the carrier.
Germanwings pilots staged a nationwide strike in April 2014 over retirement age and pay, which lasted 3 days while Lufthansa pilots staged simultaneous strikes, and more recently hundreds of flights last month had to be cancelled due to a 36-hour walkout.
The airline reports occasional flight disruptions is expected on its route network following the crash, and changed its Twitter profile image in light of the accident (below).
Aviation experts speaking to Travel Weekly today raised contradictions as to the possible cause of the crash, and said more air accidents in future were likely.
