Condor Will Fly Its Ex-Etihad Airbus A330s On 15 Routes
Condor took delivery of an ex-Etihad Airways A330-200 on February 9th. It is one of four that it'll have, with the other three to be delivered soon.
The former Etihad A330s will have 262 or 256 seats, with the business class, in particular, being a significant upgrade for Condor's passengers. It'd be logical to assume the aircraft are to increase capacity, especially during the summer, aided by the withdrawal of Condor's B767-300ERs in 2020. However, the main reason seems to be to train 400+ crew members ahead of the carrier's incoming A330neos, with the first of 16 due later in 2022.
Condor's first ex-Etihad A330
Condor's first A330-200 was delivered to Etihad in January 2009 as A6-EYR, according to ch-aviation.com. The 13.24-year-old aircraft was stored in Abu Dhabi before being handled by Avolon, the lease management company, with the registration OE-ISR. It was subsequently stored at Ciudad Real and Düsseldorf, and the registration was changed to D-AIYC.
D-AIYC has been kept busy since February 12th with crew training. According to Flightradar, it has undertaken multiple short flights within Germany. On February 13th, for example, it completed 12 sectors. It left Frankfurt at 06:33 and arrived back at 12:38, presumably for a crew change. It then departed at 14:47 and came back at 20:56. When writing on February 15th, it has so far flown Frankfurt-Leipzig-Stuttgart-Leipzig, with more to come.
The A330 enters service on May 1st
The former Etihad A330s will begin revenue-generating flights on Sunday, May 1st, according to schedules submitted to OAG. Perhaps not surprisingly, the first flight will be between Frankfurt and Palma, just 778 miles (1,252km) apart. Mallorca is enormously popular with Germans, with 11 million seats for sale involving 25 German airports in 2019. In 2021
The flight will be DE1504, departing Germany at 13:35 and arriving in Palma at 15:35. Returning, it'll leave at 16:35 and arrive home at 18:45. Unless more flying is added, that'll be it until May 8th, when another round-trip to Palma will be conducted. Things start to increase from May 15th, with the A330 used to Seattle, followed by Punta Cana and Toronto the next day. The A330 will, of course, replace the B767-300ER.
15 A330 routes this year
While the schedules might not be finalized, Condor's A330s are currently down to serve 15 routes this year, as shown below. All but two will be from Frankfurt, with Frankfurt to Palma the only short-haul route. There are two one-stop services, and they'll operate triangularly: Frankfurt-Zanzibar-Mombasa-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Puerto Plata-Santo Domingo-Frankfurt.
- Frankfurt to Palma: 324 departures by the A330 this year; starting May 1st
- Frankfurt to Seattle: 160; May 15th
- Düsseldorf to Palma: 155; May 20th
- Frankfurt to Punta Cana: 141; May 16th
- Frankfurt to Toronto: 85; May 16th
- Frankfurt to Cancun: 34; November 3rd
- Frankfurt to Cape Town: 24; November 1st
- Frankfurt to Malé: 23; November 2nd
- Frankfurt to Mauritius: 20; October 30th
- Frankfurt to Zanzibar and Mombasa: 17; November 4th
- Frankfurt to Whitehorse: eight; July 26th
- Frankfurt to Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo: six; November 2nd
- Düsseldorf to JFK: four; September 8th
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