Condor Will Fly Its Ex-Etihad Airbus A330s On 15 Routes

The former Etihad A330s will have 262 or 256 seats, with the business class, in particular, being a significant upgrade for Condor's passengers. It'd be logical to assume the aircraft are to increase capacity, especially during the summer, aided by the withdrawal of Condor's B767-300ERs in 2020. However, the main reason seems to be to train 400+ crew members ahead of the carrier's incoming A330neos, with the first of 16 due later in 2022.

It'd be easy to comment on the colorfulness of the aircraft, but this aircraft (and the other three to arrive) won't be used for too long. Photo: Tom Boon - Simple Flying.

Condor's first ex-Etihad A330

Condor's first A330-200 was delivered to Etihad in January 2009 as A6-EYR, according to ch-aviation.com. The 13.24-year-old aircraft was stored in Abu Dhabi before being handled by Avolon, the lease management company, with the registration OE-ISR. It was subsequently stored at Ciudad Real and Düsseldorf, and the registration was changed to D-AIYC.

D-AIYC has been kept busy since February 12th with crew training. According to Flightradar, it has undertaken multiple short flights within Germany. On February 13th, for example, it completed 12 sectors. It left Frankfurt at 06:33 and arrived back at 12:38, presumably for a crew change. It then departed at 14:47 and came back at 20:56. When writing on February 15th, it has so far flown Frankfurt-Leipzig-Stuttgart-Leipzig, with more to come.

It isn't the first time that the German leisure airline has used the A330. It used five briefly pre-pandemic, mainly in 2018 and 2019. Photo: TJDarmstadt via Flickr.

Stay aware: Sign up for my weekly new routes newsletter.

The A330 enters service on May 1st

The former Etihad A330s will begin revenue-generating flights on Sunday, May 1st, according to schedules submitted to OAG. Perhaps not surprisingly, the first flight will be between Frankfurt and Palma, just 778 miles (1,252km) apart. Mallorca is enormously popular with Germans, with 11 million seats for sale involving 25 German airports in 2019. In 2021, Lufthansa used the B747-8 to Palma.

The flight will be DE1504, departing Germany at 13:35 and arriving in Palma at 15:35. Returning, it'll leave at 16:35 and arrive home at 18:45. Unless more flying is added, that'll be it until May 8th, when another round-trip to Palma will be conducted. Things start to increase from May 15th, with the A330 used to Seattle, followed by Punta Cana and Toronto the next day. The A330 will, of course, replace the B767-300ER.

Condor's A330 departures from Germany_ May 1st to December 31st, 2022

Condor will have up to seven A330 non-stop departures from Germany each day. Peak days will be Fridays, from June 3rd to October 10th. As you'd expect, the decline on the right represents winter. Note that only says with activity are shown. Source of data: OAG.

15 A330 routes this year

While the schedules might not be finalized, Condor's A330s are currently down to serve 15 routes this year, as shown below. All but two will be from Frankfurt, with Frankfurt to Palma the only short-haul route. There are two one-stop services, and they'll operate triangularly: Frankfurt-Zanzibar-Mombasa-Frankfurt and Frankfurt-Puerto Plata-Santo Domingo-Frankfurt.