By R.S.
19 January 2005

The new Polish budget airline Centralwings and German low-cost carrier Germanwings have established sales and marketing cooperation known as Wing Partnership.

The carriers have decided to cooperate in order to gain a leading position on the low-cost flight market between Poland and Germany. They will also conduct joint marketing activities on third markets to strengthen their efficiency and marketing effectiveness, says Piotr Kociołek, president of Centralwings. Cooperation will involve sales and marketing as well as information technology. As part of their Internet services, Germanwings and Centralwings will create websites with information about each other and their services. In a graphic form, the webpages will present the network of connections offered by both carriers, and clients will be able to make online reservations for flights provided by the two airlines. The carriers also expect mutual benefits from coordination of promotional activities in third countries and joint airport service purchases.

Germanwings and Centralwings offer an expanded package of flights between Germany and Poland. Germanwings flies to Cracow and Warsaw from Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart, while Centralwings will fly to Hanover and Nuremberg from Warsaw and will also offer flights to Cologne/Bonn and Hanover from Katowice.

"We want to carry out the idea of pan-European cooperation between the airlines in keeping with the Wing Partnership concept," said Dr. Andreas Bierwirth, vice-president and managing director of Germanwings. "For clients in Germany, this concept is a synonym for high service quality and at the same time low prices, reliability and excellent in-flight service. Centralwings has also adopted a similar concept of development; much as Germanwings, it chooses airports located closer to major cities. Thanks to this cooperation, Germanwings and Centralwings will draw mutual benefits from the good image of their brands and the confidence they enjoy in their native countries."

Thanks to their cooperation, the two airlines will offer their clients connections between Poland and Germany, provided in accordance with the same high quality standards and client service models which have been successfully applied by Germanwings.

Centralwings is a budget airline owned by LOT Polish Airlines. Germanwings belongs to Eurowings Luftverkehr AG, which is controlled by Lufthansa. Cooperation with Centralwings is the German airline's second alliance with a European low-cost airline, after cooperation with bmibaby.

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