The carrier flies between Frankfurt and Anchorage, Alaska, during the spring and summer.
My Condor flight at the gate after arriving in Anchorage. (Photo: AirlineGeeks | Joey Gerardi)
Condor is a German leisure airline known for its bright, colorful striped livery, which stands out at any airport it flies to. It operates many routes throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, primarily to warm, vibrant vacation destinations where Europeans can spend their holidays.
Anchorage, Alaska, is one of Condor’s more unique destinations, and the route is quite unusual as well. The flight between Frankfurt and Anchorage is the state’s only passenger flight to the European continent, and for parts of the summer, Condor is the only one operating it, meaning the airline is the only way to fly to Europe nonstop for passengers from Alaska.
Given the uniqueness and seasonality of Condor’s Frankfurt to Anchorage flight, I decided it was an AvGeek flight worth a try. This trip also allowed us to try out the airline’s Business class cabin, which they redesigned less than three years ago in the fall of 2022.
I arrived at the airport about four hours before my flight, and upon entering the check-in area, I was greeted with four options for Condor check-in counters: Business, Premium Economy, Economy, and those passengers headed to the United States. This is because passengers headed to the U.S. aren’t able to check in online for the flight and need to see an agent when they arrive at the airport, and are also unable to use the airline’s kiosk.
As Condor does not have their own branded lounge in Frankfurt, Condor passengers in the Business cabin get access to the Lufthansa lounge. Since it is not Condor-branded, I will not go in depth about the details of the lounge, but it is worth a visit if you have the time.
After leaving the lounge, I headed to my gate for my flight. In Frankfurt, they have a handful of bus gates where they transport you out to the plane located on a remote parking stand, and because of this extra time to get out to the plane, they start and end boarding a little bit earlier, so make sure to pay attention so you don’t miss your flight.
Most passengers don’t like the extra hassle of getting on the bus and going up the stairs, but as an AvGeek, I absolutely love it when this occurs. My aircraft for the flight to Frankfurt is D-ANRP, an Airbus A330-900neo that was delivered directly to Condor in June of 2024, so the aircraft was roughly a year old when I took the flight, and had the Beige Beach livery.
The airline’s business class cabins on their A330-900neos are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, with my seat being 8K, a window on the right side of the aircraft. Waiting for me at my seat was a pillow, blanket, mattress pad for when the seat was in the lie-flat position, water, an amenity kit, and a reusable travel bag, along with noise-canceling headphones that I could borrow for the flight.
Before leaving the gate/remote parking space, the crew also offered us a pre-departure beverage, which was a choice of orange juice, water, or champagne, and they also brought around our menus. We left the parking space on time, and we took off from Frankfurt am Main not long after that and turned north over Germany towards Alaska.
The in-flight entertainment screen (IFE) had a lot of stuff on it, including movies, TV, and even video instructions on how to use some of the seat features in the relatively new business class seats, or for people who have never sat in them before.
It also had videos of landing at different Condor destinations from the point of view of the nose gear, which was pretty cool to see, especially for the AvGeeks on the flight. There was also a digital menu with food and drink options available to all passengers, German movies, a duty-free catalog which had some AvGeek-type items like scale model airplanes and a Lego version of Condor’s A330, and of course, the in-flight moving map.
The Business class amenity kit comes with a toothbrush, toothpaste, and socks, same as Premium Economy, but the Business one differs as it also comes with lip balm and moisturizer. The menu was very in-depth and offered three options for the main course: pork, salmon, or pasta, with the starter being the same for all of them. About 30-40 minutes after takeoff, the crew brought out the tablecloth and the opener, which was a bowl of nuts and your choice of a drink. I chose something called a Condormopolitan.
Once we reached our initial cruising altitude of 38,000 feet, the pilot made an announcement with our projected route to Anchorage, which took us over northern Germany, past Iceland, toward the top of Greenland, over northern Canada, and the north coast of Alaska.
No matter what main course option you chose, the starter was the same for all of them: cream cheese chili dip, lemongrass prawns, carrot delice, green asparagus with yuzu mayonnaise, a small dish of burrata with tomato sauce and green pesto with basil, and a small chicken salad with romaine lettuce, cheese, and Caesar dressing.
You also got your choice of bread, which for me was a pretzel roll and garlic bread. Also with the meal was a small salt and pepper shaker that looked like an airplane and said Condor, which you could take home with you, and of course, I did.
After I finished the starter portion, they picked up the tray and brought around our main course choice, which for me was the pork tenderloin, which had potatoes, hollandaise sauce, and white German asparagus. I also had some Brew Dog beer, but I am not a real beer drinker and only had it because it came in a Condor-themed can, which I kept and brought home just like the airplane salt and pepper shaker.
As I enjoyed the views of the ocean below, they cleaned up the starter and the main course, and they brought around dessert, which was cheesecake with raspberry sauce, and another drink if you wanted it.
After dessert and the remainder of the food was cleaned up, and my first movie was over, I explored more of the buttons and features of the seat before the cabin lights were turned down so people could sleep. The seat did offer lie-flat mode, along with a recline feature. There was also a retractable remote with different buttons for the IFE screen, including a scroll pad similar to something you would find on a laptop. There was a small light fixture behind your head on the side of the seat, and a little bit lower than that, there was the headphone jack along with a USB-A and USB-C port, along with a power outlet.
Now three hours into the flight passing Iceland, the cabin lights were turned down, and I put my seat into the lie-flat position to get some sleep. The mattress pad they gave us wasn’t very thick, but it was definitely comfortable.
When I woke up after a few hours of good sleep, we were at a new cruising altitude of 40,000 feet and had about 2.5 hours left in the flight. We were passing over Prince Patrick Island in Canada, although it was cloudy, so it was kind of hard to make it out, though I could still see it.
The crew turned the cabin lights back up as they got ready to serve the pre-arrival meal. We also passed over northern Alaska, and thankfully, by this time, the clouds had cleared and I could make out the frozen coastline, which was absolutely beautiful, as I had never seen this part of the state before.
For the pre-arrival meal, the starter was a salad with baby leaf lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, and Spanish dressing. The main course was pulled beef, sweet potato puree, and barbecue sauce, and the dessert was mascarpone cream on sponge cake with rhubarb, and a bread roll on the side, and of course your choice of drink.
After my second movie was over, I spent the rest of the flight looking out at the beautiful Alaskan scenery below me. We passed over rivers and mountains along with a handful of small towns. One of the most notable things we passed was Denali, which stuck out above the clouds near the middle of the state.
They also handed out the customs declaration form for the U.S. to all the passengers, and the pilot went over the weather in Anchorage when we were about 45 minutes away from landing. Even though it was an over nine-hour flight from Frankfurt to Anchorage, the most beautiful scenery of the journey was definitely within the last two hours of the flight, over Alaska.
Just before landing in Anchorage, it was cool seeing the overall flight map on the IFE screen, as before now, I have never flown that far north before.
We passed over a few more rivers and could see the mountains in the not-so-far distance as we approached Anchorage International.
We then landed at Anchorage at 3:10 p.m., after nine hours and 22 minutes of flying time. The timing was also unique, as Frankfurt and Anchorage are separated by 10 time zones, and because the flight was under 10 hours that means we landed nearly 40 minutes before even taking off, and you could spend the rest of the day doing whatever you want without losing any of the day.
When arriving in Anchorage, you go into the North Terminal at Ted Stevens International, as this is where the customs facility is located. After all passengers and cargo are offloaded, they tow the plane over to the South Terminal, where the rest of the flights at the airport are, and it departs from there. They do this because they don’t want to staff the entire North Terminal for TSA, shops, and otherwise for the very limited international passenger arrivals that the airport does get.
Air Canada does operate passenger flights here, but Vancouver is one of the many U.S. Pre-Clearance airports, meaning when they arrive in Anchorage, they are treated as a domestic flight, with all passengers already having cleared U.S. customs in Canada.
It was such a cool experience flying in Condor’s Business class cabin for the first time, and having the experience of flying over the frozen Alaskan coastline and mountain ranges was super cool to see with the clear weather. As mentioned before, this is the only route from the state of Alaska to the European continent for passengers, and Condor operates the route twice to three times a week, depending on the month, during the Alaskan tourist season in the summer months.
This year, the flights started in mid-May and are currently scheduled to operate until September, and until then, you’ll be able to see Condor’s unique livery in the state of Alaska.
A video account of the flight can be found below.
Editor’s Note: Condor provided AirlineGeeks with a seat on this flight, but this trip report is an objective portrayal of events.
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