The German airline Eurowings is expanding its business area and entering the market with its own tour operator. The newly founded Eurowings Holidays GmbH, based in Cologne, will officially start operations on April 1, 2025 and will offer tailor-made travel packages in the future. With this step, Eurowings is strengthening its presence in the tourism sector and is relying on synergies between the airline and tour operator business.
The new company is based on the already established Eurowings Holidays brand, which has been built up since 2020 under the HLX Group by tourism entrepreneur Karlheinz Kögel. In order to quickly implement and establish the business, Eurowings Holidays is taking over personnel and tourism IT systems from Kögel's company. In particular, Binoli GmbH, a subsidiary of the HLX Group, is bringing its know-how and more than 50 employees to the new company. In total, around 100 tourism experts will start with the new brand. The purchase price of the takeover has been kept confidential.
Strategic expansion course and new business opportunities
By founding its own tour operator, Eurowings is positioning itself even more strongly in the holiday segment and is using the many years of experience of the HLX Group. The company is relying on a dynamic tour operator model that enables more flexible travel offers than classic package tours. Karlheinz Kögel, known as a pioneer of the last-minute travel industry and founder of L'TUR, has played a key role in shaping this concept. The idea behind it: Travelers can combine individual packages of flight, hotel and transfer and at the same time have greater flexibility when booking and canceling.
The digital approach of Eurowings Holidays is particularly noteworthy. The close cooperation with Eurowings Digital GmbH, a subsidiary specializing in e-commerce, data science and artificial intelligence, is intended to support the growth and competitiveness of the new brand. Eurowings Digital, based in Cologne, currently employs almost 300 experts from 36 nations and will play a key role in the technological development of the travel offer.
Eurowings strengthens market position in the holiday flight segment
The step to establish its own tour operator comes at a strategically favorable time. Under the leadership of CEO Jens Bischof, Eurowings has increasingly developed in recent years from an airline focused on business travel to a leading holiday airline. Eurowings has developed a strong market position, particularly on Mallorca. In the high season, the airline offers over 400 weekly connections between Palma de Mallorca and 26 different airports in Europe. Eurowings is also the market leader at German locations such as Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne and Stuttgart.
With the new tour operator business, Eurowings is aiming for even closer customer loyalty. More than 20 million passengers use the airline's flight offers every year. Now these customers will be able to book not just flight tickets, but complete travel packages from a single source. Eurowings Holidays will advertise low deposits, flexible rebooking options and inexpensive cancellation options.
Voices from the industry and expectations for the future
Jens Bischof, CEO of Eurowings, sees the new company as an important milestone for the future of the airline: "We are combining our leading position in holiday flights with excellent package tour and digital know-how. In doing so, we are strengthening our business model and developing into an innovative force in the growing tourism market. The high level of awareness and popularity of our brand will help to establish Eurowings Holidays among the 'top ten' German tour operators in the near future."
Karlheinz Kögel, whose company has made a significant contribution to the successful development of Eurowings Holidays, also has a positive view of the takeover: "The Eurowings Holidays brand has played a key role in the outstanding development of the HLX Group, which last year welcomed 333.000 guests and generated sales of 275 million euros. It is not easy for me to sell significant parts of this successful business area, but I am proud that with a lot of passion and meticulousness we have turned our dynamic tour operator into a real success story."
and 