EW Discover (Frankfurt International) - the long-haul leisure specialist in the Lufthansa Group - is planning to rebrand to address market confusion with Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf), its sister carrier that focuses on low-cost short-haul routes in Europe, according to business daily Handelsblatt.
The rebranding will include a change of name and livery. Citing unnamed sources close to the airline, Handelsblatt reports the Eurowings suffix will be dropped from the name, and the purple colour scheme will likely be replaced with a shade of blue, closer to Lufthansa's core brand colour.
A Lufthansa Group spokeswoman confirmed to ch-aviation: "The aim is to further sharpen the profile of Eurowings Discover as the Lufthansa Group's Quality Leisure Airline in Germany and to position the airline clearly in the vacation and private travel segment. In this context, it was also decided to further develop the existing brand. We will inform you about further details in due course."
Once rebranded, plans are to return the airline to profitability, according to Handelsblatt. Results of EW Discover are included in Lufthansa's results, which was still loss-making in 2022 with an adjusted EBIT loss of EUR466 million (USD522 million). While the Lufthansa Group as a whole achieved financial turnaround in 2022 with adjusted EBIT of EUR1.5 billion euros (USD1.6 billion), the only passenger airlines in the group to report an operating profit were Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) and Swiss (LX, Zurich). Eurowings also remained loss-making at -EUR197 million (-USD221 million) in 2022.
