Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) will roll out its new longhaul budget subsidiary in autumn of next year with tentative initial operational bases to focus on Munich, Düsseldorf and Cologne/Bonn.

“The internal project name for the LCC long-haul carrier is Intercont-Wings or Cont-Wings,” a Lufthansa spokesperson told Air Transport World in Frankfurt.

CEO Carsten Spohr has stated the project will initially use either seven B767s or A330s with plans to phase in additional aircraft should the venture prove viable. Thereafter, A350 and B787s will also be considered, he said.

Along with proposed Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg, CH-based European LCC, Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf), Lufthansa intends to use its two new subsidiaries to recapture market share lost to the likes of Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), Wizz Air (W6, Budapest), and easyJet (London Luton) on the regional European front and Emirates (EK, Dubai International), Qatar Airways (QR, Doha Hamad International), and Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) on the international front.