Condor Adds First China Destination As Part Of Network Shift

German leisure carrier Condor is expanding its Asia network with the addition of Sanya, marking its first destination in China.

Starting in July 2025, the airline will operate three weekly flights from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) to Sanya Phoenix International Airport (SYX) via Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport using Airbus A330neo aircraft.

The route is part of a newly signed memorandum of understanding between Condor, the Sanya Tourism Board and SYX, aimed at boosting tourism and cultural exchange. Sanya, located on the southern tip of Hainan Island, is known for its beach resorts and cultural sites such as Nanshan Temple and Binlang Ethnic Village.

“With the planned launch of the new flight connection and close cooperation with our new partners, we are convinced that we can offer our guests a very attractive new destination for vacation trips in Sanya,” Condor CEO Peter Gerber says.

Condor currently serves three destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, flying from FRA to Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand, along with Male in the Maldives. The routes to Bangkok and Male are each offered five times per week at present, while Phuket receives four weekly flights.

The planned addition of Sanya is part of Condor’s ongoing efforts to restructure its network amid regulatory shifts and changing competitive dynamics in Europe.

Lufthansa ended a long-standing special prorate agreement (SPA) with Condor in December 2024, replacing it with an interline arrangement. The loss of the SPA has therefore limited Condor’s access to feeder traffic at FRA, reducing the number of connecting passengers and making some North American routes unviable.

As a result, Condor will discontinue seven destinations in North America—Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, San Antonio, Edmonton, Baltimore and Halifax—due to their heavy reliance on feeder traffic. The only U.S. market gaining capacity is Miami, which has strong enough demand to sustain flights without additional feed.

To offset the drop in North American capacity, the airline is reallocating aircraft to increase frequencies on high-demand leisure routes and expanding into new markets, including Bangkok and Phuket, which launched last September. Flights to Panama will also open in June.

In Europe, Condor is also making changes to its short-haul network to backfill some of the feeder requirements. One A320 aircraft will be stationed in Vienna this summer, while service from FRA will be added to Berlin, Hamburg, Milan, Munich, Paris, Rome and Zurich.

As reported by Aviation Week, the European Commission (EC) in late February dropped previously announced interim measures against Lufthansa to reinstate Condor’s access to its short-haul network, as part of an ongoing antitrust investigation into Lufthansa’s joint venture with United Airlines and Air Canada.

The EC initially planned to enforce the measures to protect competition on Frankfurt-New York routes, but concluded that legal conditions were not fully met. However, the investigation into potential anti-competitive practices remains ongoing.