Well It definately looks like bmibaby and Germanwings are definately co-operating. Theres a link to the Germanwings website on the bmibaby site booking engine. Also theres a press release on the Germanwings website. Nothing on the bmibaby site though.
'Germanwings and bmibaby announce new co-operation'
Together the airlines cover the two most important markets in Europe
BERLIN – New no-frills co-operation. At the start of the International Tourism Fair (ITB) in Berlin on Friday, Germanwings announced that it will in future be co-operating with the British no-frills carrier bmibaby to develop sales opportunities for both airlines. According to Friedrich-Wilhelm Weitholz, Chairman of the Board at Germanwings' parent company Eurowings Luftverkehrs AG, “Both airlines have high standards when it comes to safety, reliability and quality. bmibaby is the subsidiary of bmi and Germanwings the subsidiary of Eurowings.”
“No other German no-frills airline”, said Germanwings' Managing Director, Dr. Joachim Klein “offers its customers a network as extensive as that available through this co-operation”. In Great Britain, bmibaby operates a European network of 58 routes from its bases at Nottingham East Midlands, Teesside, Manchester, Cardiff and London-Gatwick airports. In Germany, Germanwings operates a total of 39 flight routes from Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart. Together our range of flights covers both of the largest tourism markets in Europe.”
Tony Davis, bmibaby’s Managing Director commented: “With this co-operation both airlines are strengthening their sales presence in the destinations that we both operate to: Spain, France, Great Britain and the Czech Republic. On the homepages of both Germanwings and bmibaby selected routes of the other partner airline will be listed and customers will automatically be forwarded to the relevant partner's website for their actual booking. This will give both airlines the opportunity to offer even more destinations through their respective websites. In addition, we will be working with Germanwings to explore other areas of opportunity to both improve sales and performance”.
“The low-cost sector has revolutionised our entire industry in the past months and it is hard to imagine the travel industry without it today” according to Friedrich-Wilhelm Weitholz. “The sector has come out of its niche and is growing much faster than the traditional airlines. Industry experts estimate that this summer 20 percent of flight movements in Europe will be carried out by no-frills airlines.” The Eurowings Chairman of the Board went on to explain: “The different business systems are gradually converging and the division between no-frills airlines and charter airlines is becoming blurred. Network carriers are offering flights at very low prices. The established airlines as well as the low-cost carriers are all differentiating themselves more and more through their range of prices and services.” In this market situation Germanwings has decided to co-operate with other airlines who also offer a high quality, safe and reliable product.
Germanwings can look back on a relatively short but nonetheless extremely successful history with 3.8 million tickets booked just over 15 months after its launch in Cologne/Bonn. The range of flights has been extended substantially at the start of each new flight schedule; the fleet has grown from five to now twelve aircraft at the start of the summer schedule in March; the airline is well-known to more than 99 percent of the important target group of business travellers; even the percentage of foreign passengers travelling to Cologne and Stuttgart from Germanwings' destinations has increased steadily and now lies above 20 percent. Germanwings has signed contracts on special company rates with more than 300 companies and a close co-operation with the German tour operators Neckermann Städtereisen and FlyLoCo, amongst others, already exists.
The range of destinations flown to is also continually growing. In the summer timetable 2004 Germanwings will be flying to eight new destinations from Cologne/Bonn alone, making a total of 30 attractive cities on offer from Cologne/Bonn from 28th March 2004 onwards: flights to Dublin have already been operating since 29th February - further destinations are Munich and Faro. Parallel to the EU's expansion eastwards, Warsaw has been introduced as a destination for leisure and business travellers alike. Germanwings is also extending its network into Northern Europe considerably with the Scandinavian capitals Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm. Two additional daily flight pairs to London's centrally located Gatwick Airport are also new. These will operate at morning and evening times, making them equally attractive to business and leisure travellers.
The airline's website has developed just as successfully as the airline itself:
www.germanwings.com is listed as the most visited travel portal in almost all relevant rankings and has become the biggest travel agency in Germany with a complete range of flights, hotels, rental cars and event tickets. With its “Crazy Nights”, countless competitions and specials the website has become a portal for bargain hunters. By introducing mobile booking using WAP technology in co-operation with T-Mobile, Germanwings is progressing as the leader in innovation within the airline industry when it comes to online marketing and sales. What is more, Germanwings also manages to actively market its website.
Berlin, 12th March 2004