In September 2023, Condor announced that it would launch a new route to my home airport of Miami. However, the route was initially supposed to be a summer seasonal service. There’s an exciting update, as flagged by @IshrionA, as Condor has extended this route to year-round.
In this post:
Condor adding Miami flights with A330-900neos
As of March 23, 2024, German leisure airline Condor will be launching year-round nonstop flights between Frankfurt (FRA) and Miami (MIA). The service will operate with the following schedule 3x weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays):
DE2044 Frankfurt to Miami departing 2:30PM arriving 7:10PM
DE2045 Miami to Frankfurt departing 9:10PM arriving 12:40PM (+1 day)
The 4,833-mile flight is blocked at 10hr40min westbound and 9hr30min eastbound. Condor will operate the flight with an Airbus A330-900neo, featuring 310 seats. This includes 30 business class seats, 64 extra legroom economy seats, and 216 economy seats.
When the route was first put on sale, it was only supposed to operate from March until September. I was a bit confused by that seasonality. Historically Condor has primarily targeted Germans headed abroad, rather than the other way around (though I think the passenger mix is starting to change).
With that in mind, you’d think that if Miami service were operated seasonally, it would be in winter, rather than summer. Not only is there a lot more demand for travel to Miami in winter, but leisure airlines often struggle with where to send their planes in winter, so you’d think Florida would be an obvious destination.
So I’m happy to see that Condor has had a change of heart, and will now operate its Miami flights year-round. Perhaps Condor just wanted to see how the flight sold initially, before putting flights on sale for winter.
It’s so nice to see Condor competing head-on with Lufthansa
It really has been such a pleasure to see Condor’s transformation as an airline. Historically the airline had an uncompetitive product due to its outdated Boeing 767s, and specifically flew to (almost) exclusively leisure destinations that Lufthansa wouldn’t serve.
However, the airline is now reinventing itself. For one, the airline is refreshing its long haul fleet with Airbus A330-900neos. These feature a competitive business class product, and even a business class “plus” experience.
Lufthansa has historically dominated the nonstop markets it operates in, and the pricing has reflected that. So it’s exciting to see that Condor is increasingly competing directly with Lufthansa, in most cases offering significantly better value.
Bottom line
Condor will be launching a new route between Frankfurt and Miami as of March 23, 2024. The airline will use its beautiful new A330-900neos for the route, featuring a great product. I’ll definitely be taking this flight at some point when traveling between Miami and Europe, and I’m happy that this flight won’t just be seasonal.
What do you make of Condor’s new Miami service?
BEST thing is . . . . from MIA, CONDOR (DE) already has connecting fares to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica on other airlines, so tickets can be sold as 1.
Yes, looks like DE is moving fast on that new route!
Poor Lufthansa, and partner UNITED has no hub in MIA to be competitive for South America Connections.
ALSO great, for flights on CONDOR from there many Caribbean and Mexico destinations!
...
BEST thing is . . . . from MIA, CONDOR (DE) already has connecting fares to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica on other airlines, so tickets can be sold as 1.
Yes, looks like DE is moving fast on that new route!
Poor Lufthansa, and partner UNITED has no hub in MIA to be competitive for South America Connections.
ALSO great, for flights on CONDOR from there many Caribbean and Mexico destinations!
Nassau, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, Barbados, Aruba, Havana, Varadero, Cancun, Los Cabos, Montego Bay, Grenada, Tobago, Holguin, Antigua . . .
Might soon be the BEST choice for those who used to think it was only Lufthansa from the Miami area to Frankfurt, or beyond.
Glad CONDOR is going this way.
Maybe an attack to the ever so often cancelled LH subsidiary flights on Disaster (Discover Airlines) to Orlando, Fort Myers? ;-)
Well done CONDOR!
.... not to forget, new planes and much better service on the flights, compared to LH product.
So happy to see Condor doing good.
Got to fly the "new" Condor from JNB to FRA a couple weeks ago in Economy class. The legroom exceeded expectations and there was a choice of 3 meals! Having only 2 seats by the window as the A330 does is wonderful.
In Frankfurt connected to a Discover flight to MCO, also on an A330. It was equally good.
Great new way to redeem Alaska miles!
Good Luck!
AS maybe to Germany, . . . but nowhere else from the US, Spain, Greece, Italy, Maldives, Indian Ocean, Asia, Portugal . . . forget the crazy AS program on DE (CONDOR) flights!
;-)
.... time for AS to become "modern" finally and be a full and reliable award Mileage Plan program!
One of the worst liveries in the industry.
Why?
It's different! It stands out. People talk about it. Everyone who's ever seen it before, will instantly recognize it again.
Think of the alternative: we could've gotten another all-White plane with a name written on the side.
From what I understand, the German legal system basically forced Lufthansa to continue domestically accommodating and codesharing with an airline that has now changed to directly compete against it.
That seems so strange.
ImmortalSynn - yes the German gov has forced Lufthansa to codeshare with Condor and will likely to continue to do so even though they are competing more and more head on. Part of this is primarily because Condor lacks the robust domestic German and intra-European network that Lufthansa possesses. Should Condor eventually start competing with Lufthansa for a larger domestic and continental market share, then I can definitely see the government releasing Lufthansa from its...
ImmortalSynn - yes the German gov has forced Lufthansa to codeshare with Condor and will likely to continue to do so even though they are competing more and more head on. Part of this is primarily because Condor lacks the robust domestic German and intra-European network that Lufthansa possesses. Should Condor eventually start competing with Lufthansa for a larger domestic and continental market share, then I can definitely see the government releasing Lufthansa from its cooperation obligations,
Oh no poor Lufthansa, it's only the largest airline group in Europe, boo-hoo.
^ that's a.... very weird response.
NON OF THIS IS TRUE HERE!
NO Codeshare ever between DE and LH!
LH has to sell pro rated feeder fares to DE as was for the last 20 years, simply because LH had this agreement with DE for ages and German Government forced LH to not cancel that agreement with DE for next years!
No Codeshare EVER has been happening with DE and LH ever!
Lufthansa attacked CONDOR (DE) in...
NON OF THIS IS TRUE HERE!
NO Codeshare ever between DE and LH!
LH has to sell pro rated feeder fares to DE as was for the last 20 years, simply because LH had this agreement with DE for ages and German Government forced LH to not cancel that agreement with DE for next years!
No Codeshare EVER has been happening with DE and LH ever!
Lufthansa attacked CONDOR (DE) in a direct way, as they tried to eliminate them by building lowest cost airlines (SunExpress Germany , BRUSSELS , DISCOVER .... )ALL Lufthansa Low Cost airlines started, just to drag CONDOR, airberlin, LTU out of the market. Except LTU and airberlin, nobody offered domestic feeding flights, LH had/has monopoly by slots, government support, therefore LH was forced to keep those regular scheduled flights also available as feeder to/from FRA for CONDOR at pro Rates (if certain booking classes were available, at time of booking!).
Has NOTHING to do with codesharing or competition. An old contract that Lufthansa tried to cancel from 1 day to the next!
Just to get CONDOR off the market as well in Germany.
AGAIN: . . . LH-Group, most corrupt airline in Europe!