With Eurowings Europe Limited, Lufthansa Group has established a new subsidiary in Malta, similar to Ryanair and Co.
Eurowings’ workforce is said to have received a circular last week stating that a new company has been set up in Malta. It bears the name Eurowings Europe Limited and will gradually take over the aviation activities of the former Eurowings subsidiary. Even if, according to Eurowings, nothing should really change for employees, unions are involved, among other things. airliners.de mentioned.
Eurowings Europe Ltd. Should “enable further growth”
The small island of Malta is famous for being the home of European airlines. Almost all Ryanair aircraft located in Germany are operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary, Air Malta. Ryanair’s Lauda Europe also flies under the Maltese flag. There are a total of about 79 airlines in Malta – mostly to take advantage of tax benefits or to maintain EU flight operations. Now Eurowings flights will soon be operated by a new Maltese company. For this purpose, Eurowings Europe Limited was established, which should initially replace Eurowings Europe GmbH, currently headquartered in Vienna. Eurowings Europe Ltd. The new airline has previously applied for an Air Maltese Operator Certification (AOC), because the first aircraft and crews will be transferred to the new company with the upcoming winter flight schedule.
According to Eurowings, the main goal is to enable growth and mitigate the severity of employees who are currently subject to double taxation in Europe, and other players are concerned about the developments. Because even if there is currently talk of transferring foreign Eurowings bases to the Maltese AOC, it is theoretically possible to seize activities from Eurowings Germany. Then Eurowings Europe Ldt. It operates entirely without German collective agreements and thus saves, of course, significant costs. So, the Verdi workers union has informed airliners.de that it is asking the Lufthansa group to “take responsibility for the personnel in the cockpit and cabin at the German Eurowings sites and secure these jobs with us on a group basis”.
Of course, the Austrian trade union Vida is more interested, as you can see the opposite Aviation It expresses itself, because the Austrian company Eurowings Europe GmbH is the first company to be affected by the changes. But so far, there have been no “binding commitments that workers’ rights will remain untouched”. Furthermore, “Eurowings has not yet requested any conversations with us about how something like this could work at all.” Eurowings only confirm that nothing really has to change for the cockpit and cabin crew and that they must stay centered on their former bases. For employees in management, it is now being examined how to make home offices from Vienna possible for the new Maltese company.
Conclusion about Eurowings’ new branch in Malta
Reports of this type always have a certain taste. The activities of Eurowings Europe GmbH, formerly based in Austria, will be transferred to Maltese Eurowings Europe Ldt. Move. It should be ready by the end of the year. Even if Eurowings assure the workforce that nothing will change at their expense, unions are of course on the alert, because completely different conditions apply in Malta, which can apply.
