Germanwings

Germanwings was a German low-cost carrier and wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa, operating scheduled passenger services across Europe. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Cologne, the airline grew to become one of Germany's leading budget carriers, offering affordable fares on a broad network of European routes. In 2013, Lufthansa restructured its low-cost operations, transferring many of its own point-to-point European routes to Germanwings as part of a strategy to compete more effectively with rivals such as easyJet and Ryanair. The airline operated primarily out of several German airports including Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart, and Hamburg. Germanwings ceased operations in April 2020 as part of Lufthansa Group's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline had previously been overshadowed by the tragic crash of Flight 9525 in March 2015, when a co-pilot deliberately flew the aircraft into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Eurowings, another Lufthansa subsidiary, absorbed Germanwings' routes.