Lufthansa is shutting down operations of its struggling German budget affiliate Germanwings, partly in response to the coronavirus. The German airline also said it was decommissioning 18 planes in its fleet and would withdraw 11 Airbus A320 jets from short-haul operations. "The Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG does not expect the aviation industry to return to pre-coronavirus crisis levels very quickly," the airline said in a statement. "According to its assessment, it will take months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels."
Though Lufthansa discontinued the Germanwings brand and replaced it with Eurowings in 2015, Germanwings had continued as a wet-lease operator for Eurowings under its own flight numbers.Trade unions had warned of its likely closure even before Lufthansa grounded in the region of 95% of all regular flights in response to the coronavirus.
Source: Deutsche Welle, 7 April