Germanwings, a German airline wholly owned by Lufthansa but operating under Eurowings’s brand name, was shut down by Lufthansa on the 7th of April. The airline was founded in 1997 as a division of Eurowings. The main reason for its creation was to help Eurowings to enter the low cost market (an intelligent move, as flying low cost was to become very important in the 21st century). Eurowings was originally a private airline, but in 2001, Lufthansa acquired a 24,9 % stake in the airline. Then, in 2004, Lufthansa increased its stake in the company to 49%, before gaining complete ownership of the airline in 2006, therefore integrating Eurowings into the Lufthansa Group. Even though Lufthansa had complete control over Eurowings, it still had to acquire Germanwings from Eurowings in 2008 (even though Lufthansa possessed Eurowings, Germanwings was still a subsidiary of Eurowings, so it was barely related to Lufthansa [this means that it had very little to do with Lufthansa, even though it was indirectly owned by the German national carrier]). In 2015, Lufthansa announced that it would discontinue the Germanwings brand name and replace with Eurowings’s. Germanwings’s website was dissolved and redirected to Eurowings’s website. In 2017 Germanwings abandoned its IATA code (the International Air Transport Association controls what goes on in the aviation industry, gives out AOCs [Air Operator’s Certificate] and also has the right to revoke AOCs) and began to use Eurowings’s. Early this month, Lufthansa decided that it was going to shut down Germanwings, due to the coronavirus and its negative effect on the aviation industry. 13th of April 2020.
Aeronews24 