As of 29 April 2010 Germanwings, one of Germany’s leading low-cost airlines, will be basing three aircraft at Hanover-Langenhagen airport, the airline announced on Monday, making Hanover Germanwings’ sixth base in Germany.

One of the first destinations for Germanwings out of Hanover will be London Stansted. Providing morning and evening flights to the London hub, this new service should appeal to leisure and business travellers alike.

Germanwings will also be serving 14 other destinations in Europe directly from Hanover, including:
- Stuttgart (two flights per day)
- Vienna (two flights per day)
- Milan (six flights per week)
- Budapest (four flights per week)
- Moscow (four flights per week)
- Palma de Mallorca (four flights per week)
- Rome (four flights per week)
- Barcelona (four flights per week)
- Split (three flights per week)
- Zagreb (three flights per week)
- Bastia (one flight weekly)
- Dubrovnik (one flight weekly)
- Heraklion (one flight weekly), and
- Zadar (one flight weekly)

Travellers can now secure thousands of flight tickets to the new destinations served from Hanover from as little as 19.99 euros, including all taxes, fees and charges.

Germanwings management spokesman Thomas Winkelmann comments: “Our commitment in Hanover strengthens our growth course and will also have a very positive effect on the city and the region, including the creation of new jobs. The range of flights which we are offering perfectly reflects the needs of leisure and business travellers in or passing through Lower Saxony.”

The latter customer group is becoming increasingly important to Germanwings: on average, 41.6% of passengers are business travellers – attracted to using the low-cost airline due to the pressure on companies to cut costs and the ideal range of services available for this target group, which are particularly welcome during the current economic crisis.