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.
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.
