Eurowings implements virtual interlining, distributes tickets of other airlines

The newly developed Eurowings Flight Platform, which introduces the principle of 'virtual interlining', has made it possible for Eurowings customers to now book transfer connections. The innovative feature of the booking platform links Eurowings flights with offers from other airlines even though there is no cooperation.

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In addition, the new Eurowings platform covers the transfer risk between independently booked airlines: if a customer misses his connecting flight, the rebooking is handled via the Eurowings Flight platform so that the customer does not incur any additional costs in this connection.

The Eurowings Flight Platform adds numerous transfer connections to the Eurowings route network at attractive conditions: Eurowings flights can now be seamlessly combined with Norwegian Air Shuttle and SunExpress flights. This results, for example, in completely new connecting flights from Scandinavia via Germany to Mexico or from Turkey via Düsseldorf to the USA.

Meeting traveller's needs

Following the integration of mobility providers such as Flixbus and mytaxi into the airline's app, the Eurowings Flight platform is the next step in positioning eurowings.com as a comprehensive travel companion. "We are gradually expanding eurowings.com into a travel companion that meets every traveller’s needs. The smooth networking of transport providers on the ground and in the air is an essential part of this. Therefore we now sell tickets of airlines, which complement our offer by 'virtual interlining'," states Oliver Schmitt, Eurowings digital managing director.

The innovative concept of the airline combination was developed at the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, in cooperation with experts from Eurowings Digital and is the first offer of its kind from a German airline.

The technological basis for the search and combination of third-party flights comes from the Icelandic company Dohop, which is one of the leading innovators in this field. Further airlines will be integrated into the Eurowings Flight Platform in the course of the year, expanding the available route network.