German carrier Condor said it is ending service to several U.S. and Canadian airports.
The route cancellations, which included San Antonio’s only trans-Atlantic flight, were due to a ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice on Friday overturning a longstanding measure requiring Lufthansa to provide feeder flights to Condor’s network.
According to a news release from the city of San Antonio, this measure allowed for passengers from North American cities to fly on Condor to Frankfurt and connect onwards on a Lufthansa flight on the same ticket with their bags checked through to their final destination.
The ruling caused Condor to change its schedules for 2025, including discontinuing service from Frankfurt to Baltimore, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, and San Antonio in the U.S. Condor’s routes to Edmonton and Halifax in Canada were also dropped.
“This is not a decision we take lightly,” said Jens Boyd, commercial director for Condor, in the city of San Antonio’s news release. “Condor has cultivated strong professional and personal ties with San Antonio and the other affected communities over the years, and we deeply regret the loss of connectivity and service this will cause. We remain committed to exploring all avenues for fair competition, though we recognize that further legal proceedings will take time to resolve.”
A Big Loss for San Antonio
San Antonio Airport’s service of the region’s first-ever nonstop route to Europe via Condor was a milestone accomplishment in 2024. The city stated that nearly 450 passengers were reached daily in each direction, and the number of passenger flights from the airport to Europe increased by 30 percent this summer.
Several municipal and airport leaders commented on the success of the now-defunct routes.
“This summer, the San Antonio region demonstrated its strong support for trans-Atlantic travel,” said Jenna Saucedo-Herrera, CEO of the greater:SATX regional economic partnership, in the release. “While we understand and respect Condor’s challenging business decision based off the ruling by the German Federal Court of Justice, we remain deeply grateful for their investment in San Antonio and their efforts to connect SAT to the world. We look forward to resuming trans-Atlantic service and further positioning our world-class region on the global stage.”
“Together in collaboration with community partners, we will continue to work on expanding nonstop service from SAT,” added Jesus Saenz, Jr., director of airports for the city of San Antonio. “Ties between our region and Europe continue to grow, and reconnecting SAT and Europe will continue to be a top priority for us and our community. Our community has long asked for service to Europe and last summer’s numbers proved that we do have a market that can sustain nonstop service.”
