San Antonio launches first-ever nonstop service to Europe. This is a milestone in the local hospitality industry’s efforts to introduce San Antonio to international markets.
German airline Condor plans to begin service from San Antonio International Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, in May, company and city officials announced Thursday.
The service will be seasonal and will operate from May 17th to September 6th next year. The airline operates three flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
“San Antonio is between continents,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “We have arrived on the world stage.”
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Frankfurt-based Condor bills itself as Germany’s “most popular leisure airline.” Many of its planes are finished in green, gold and blue stripes “inspired by parasols, bath towels and beach chairs,” according to the company’s website.
Condor’s focus on leisure travelers is why it chooses seasonal routes in San Antonio rather than year-round.
Mikko Turtiainen, Condor’s Americas sales manager, said the airline operates a number of flights to the Caribbean, the Seychelles in East Africa and other destinations popular with Germans in the winter. As these flights become less popular in the summer, the airline will switch to flights to U.S. cities.
Turtiainen said he wants to scale up his first summer operations in San Antonio before considering whether to launch more international flights there.
Although Frankfurt flights depart from San Antonio less than four months a year, local officials say the new route will benefit business travelers as well as vacationers and could increase German investment in local businesses. It states that there is.
“These new flights will obviously help pave the way for certain industries where both sides are strong, such as advanced manufacturing and cybersecurity,” Nirenberg said.
Frankfurt is a business hub for car manufacturers, parts suppliers, telecommunications and information technology companies, chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and investment banks.
City Manager Eric Walsh said San Antonio is home to the vast Joint Base San Antonio, but the military would benefit from direct flight service to Frankfurt and local auto and pharmaceutical companies.
“There are potential opportunities to expand and strengthen the links between our two economies,” Walsh said.
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Condor, little known outside Europe, is aggressively expanding its U.S. network and increasing competition from its former owner, German giant Lufthansa. Last year, Condor launched nonstop flights to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and New York’s JFK Airport for the first time.
At the time, the company said it was responding to “extremely pent-up demand for North American travel.”
However, Condor’s decision to expand its network to San Antonio comes at a cost, not only to the airline but also to the city.
City officials have agreed to give Condor the equivalent of $1.3 million in grants over the next two years. This includes approximately $374,000 in landing, terminal and inspection fee waivers, as well as a $900,000 marketing grant to help Condor market San Antonio to European travelers, according to airport director Jesus Sáenz. It is included.
Greater: SATX, the region’s economic development arm, and Visit San Antonio, a public-private nonprofit that promotes the city to convention planners and leisure travelers, last year subsidized the airline to support new nonstop service. A fund was established to pay the money. The fund had about $2 million in holdings as of August.
Instead of making cash grants to Condor, the organizations will essentially make money by using the funds to pay airlines if fewer travelers than expected buy tickets for the service. agreed to make up the difference. However, group executives said they did not intend to spend a penny on the Frankfurt flight due to expected high passenger numbers.
Visit San Antonio will open an office in Germany on Oct. 1 to work on digital marketing and market sales for tour operators and travel agents in San Antonio, CEO Mark Anderson said. Told. Visit San Antonio opened a small London office last October.
Greater: SATX President and CEO Jenna Saucedo-Herrera welcomed the potential economic impact.
“With each new nonstop flight, our region is better positioned to support and attract new business growth, resulting in San Antonians who live here today and San Antonians who will attract them in the future.” “It creates greater career opportunities for people across the country,” she said. “Frankly, what I’m so excited about is the opportunity to continue to grow greater jobs for San Antonians and ultimately provide a path to economic mobility and prosperity. is.”
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demand and supply
Condor already served Las Vegas, Anchorage, Halifax and other North American destinations before launching its latest expansion last year. The airline has a codeshare agreement with Alaska Airlines, so travelers can use the mileage points they earn with the Washington-based carrier on Condor flights from the U.S. to Frankfurt.
The airline will replace its long-haul aircraft with the A330neo, a new wide-body airliner manufactured by European conglomerate Airbus. The plane has 310 seats: 30 in business class, 64 in premium economy, and 216 in economy.
Turtiainen said the starting fare for a round-trip business class seat is just over $2,000. Premium economy seats cost approximately $1,200.
Tickets are on sale now.
Flights to Frankfurt take 10 hours 15 minutes and flights to San Antonio take 11 hours 25 minutes.
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City officials said demand was at the heart of Condor’s decision to launch service in San Antonio.
In 2022, about 300 people per day were traveling to Europe from the San Antonio airport, Saenz said. Roughly the same number of European travelers arrived at the facility each day.
Greater: Thirty-one passengers use San Antonio International Airport each day to and from Frankfurt, including 42 passengers to and from London, according to a report commissioned by SATX and Visit San Antonio. This means that he flies 22,630 passengers a year to and from Frankfurt and 30,660 passengers to and from London. Currently, all of these passengers take one or more connecting flights to get to their destination.
San Antonio International is about to embark on a 20-year, $2.5 billion expansion. The work includes building a third terminal by 2028, rebuilding the small and outdated Terminal A, and extending the runway to accommodate long-haul flights to Asia and deep South America. . However, the airport is now able to handle flights to Europe. Its runway is long enough for wide-body jets flying between the United States and Frankfurt.
The City Authority, Greater SATX, and Visit San Antonio are pursuing nonstop service to 18 cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with London and Frankfurt being the primary focus.
Saucedo Herrera said London and Frankfurt are the top European destinations for San Antonio travelers.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has been offering nonstop flights to London since 2014. In fact, the announcement a decade ago that British Airways would link the airport to Heathrow was one of the milestones that heralded Austin’s status as an emerging capital of tech wealth and celebrity. . Since then, the airport has added direct flights to Frankfurt and Amsterdam.