It’s official — Condor will be adding flights to San Antonio, and tickets are already on sale!
Continue reading: Condor Launching Frankfurt To San Antonio Flights
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If the flight can be ticketed by Alaskan or another US airline via a codeshare arrangement, that would be great for government travel. There's a lot of back and forth between the US German bases and Joint Base San Antonio. For example, you can book a LH flight via an approved government travel agency as long as it's tickets by United.
@Jromi-You make a key point. San Antonio is packed with military, government and contractor business and this alone will make the route a success for Condor. Tourists, both directions, will be icing on the cake. San Antonio is a huge tourist city.
Minor typo in article. it says the airline hasn't be able to sustain, when it should say the "airport" Service will be 3x a week on a 339
Does Condor have any codeshare arrangements with a U.S. flag carrier? Otherwise, there’s no means through which a U.S. military traveler would be able to fly these while on business. (Fly America Act)
Might this route take business away from Lufthansa’s AUS-FRA flight?
Why doesn’t Condor join an alliance, I’m sure OneWorld or SkyTeam would be happy to have them. Especially confiscating their change in direction to more business routes over recent years. Or would jointing a alliance put their LH short-haul feed in jeopardy.
Why doesn’t Condor join an alliance, I’m sure OneWorld or SkyTeam would be happy to have them. Especially confiscating their change in direction to more business routes over recent years. Or would jointing a alliance put their LH short-haul feed in jeopardy.
Long time reader ... excited to see SAT featured here, my base. I think this is a great opportunity for all parties involved. Air Canada never promoted their service here. If the marketing is done right, this route could work. As I've gotten run off other online boards explaining the potential of San Antonio to support transatlantic service, I will simply say I believe San Antonio has enough industry and wealth to make this flight work. Congratulations SAT!
A large part of Austin's population is within an hour drive of SAT. Given the right pricing, it's an alternative to LH. Condor is an Alaska Airlines partner, and AS miles can readily be used for J. It's a relative steal at 55k miles one way.
This couldn't have come at a a better time for SAT, because AMLO's strangulation of MEX means that secondary markets such as SAT are fast losing their flights. Mexico's own goal is Germany's gain I guess.
On a macro scale, San Antonio and Austin are so close, the two Airports serve the same region, so if the prices are competitive with Austin's 3 longhauls (KLM, Luft, BA), a lot of the traffic could potentionally come from the north. I'd definitely drive down from Austin if the price was 200+ cheaper.
Perhaps there will also be an uptick in French citizens coming to San Antonio with Wembayama? Haha
Flight starts next May, it isbookable on Condor's site. There is demand, even Uncle Sam flies it daily from Randolph/Kelly Field via Space A, but without a US codeshare official government travel cannot use the flight which will hurt some possibilities for travel. Good for SAT.
"Unfortunately more often than not, these routes last for as long as the incentives do, and then they’re cut"
I feel like this is a common line that really isn't true. Besides covid cuts and WOW going under I would say most of these routes have stuck lately past incentives.
SAT has never been competitive with AUS. We travel extensively internationally, and we stopped checking fares out of SAT 4 years ago. It is so much cheaper, even with two one way rentals (or parking) to fly out of AUS, IAH, DFW, especially when you are a family or a group
I was caught of guard by Condor being the airline to take advantage of these subsidies, but I guess with the heavy LH/UA and AA/BA concentration in other Texas metros to Europe it makes sense
Condor is an alliance / codeshare partner with Alaska. I just checked the Alaska website and you can book a flight from SAT to FRA, but only vis SEA. I don't think Alaska has updated their booking yet. So, I'm very hopeful this will permit military to book the new SAT -- FRA route. The days of travel and time of arrival seem to be aimed a bit a business travelers, even though business travelers are not a core market for Condor.
Don't forget, Condor did have seasonal service to AUS as well, but it looks like that is now gone. AUS started with just BA and Condor, so I'm hopeful for SAT!
I'm keeping my eye on Tenerife Sur-EWR (run by UA) which definitely falls into this category.
That's not true. The past two years, I've traveled to Germany (BER and FRA) and both times flights from SAT were cheaper than those from AUS for my dates.
Waving at you from St. Louis. We'll see what happens when our subsidies to Lufthansa run out. Sure hope you're right.
SAT to FRA flights kind of make sense to me based on the fact that SAT has a big military presence and a lot of them were stationed in Germany as well as a large German population in and around New Braunfels.
Jon: You are completely wrong. There are "a few" bright spots out there (San Diego & Austin). But in general, if market doesn't have long haul,l: it's for a reason. I'm sure Kansas City to Iceland and Indianapolis to Paris made complete sense. Alot of these cities are using Covid Rescue funds for this BS as well. Complete & utter travesty for taxpayers.
Agreed re military traffic, though I'm dubious that the US Govt would contract with a foreign airline. As for the German heritage in the Hill Country...it's exactly that, it's a heritage presence as opposed to an active VFR market, so I don't think it will contribute to the flight loads.
PS - In general, I think Austin peeps won't drive to catch a flight at SAT given the large airline ops at AUS airport...but San Antonio peeps will drive north to AUS airport for the same reason. Lived and still commute monthly to AUS from LAX, and family in SAT...so, it is what it is. But I hope it works for SAT! Hope they're putting some tourism marketing $$ into Frankfurt and surrounds!
Do you think the US govt is going to contract with a foreign airline for military, other govt and related contractor travel? Nope! And SAT is a nice tourism destination for the domestic market, but do people know about it Germany and travel for a vacation? Nope! And the German population that referenced isn't recent generation immigrants, it's a heritage group that isn't actually even that large, so will it generate profitable VFR traffic? Nope!
Christian & Leigh:
The US Govt won't contract with Condor for a single seat.
The Military already has it's own flights directly to the bases where staff/supplies are needed.
The ENTIRE Hill Country region has German descendants, as well as much of Texas. Not just New Braunfels. Ever heard of Fredericksburg, Boerne, Luckenbach, Gruene, Schulenburg, Muenster, Walburg, New Ulm, Oldenburg, Frelsburg, Weimar, and Pflugerville. Even Tomball, Comfort, & Castroville are very Germanic.
Lastly, the majority of these descendants don't have a immediate connections to Deutschland. So they won't be traveling "Home for Christmas".
This flight is likely for prestige, to get the ball rolling on SAT's planned expansion, increase tourism both ways, etc.
Condor used to offer cheap one way business class fares for 2023. This seem a to have changed. I have been looking at one way SFO-FRA for 2024 and is $3600 and up.