Eurowings has revealed plans to set up its own digital company by the end of this year. The aim of ‘Eurowings Digital GmbH’ is to bundle all the airline’s customer-relevant digital activities under one roof.
“Our sales on eurowings.com already amount to more than a billion euros and over the course of this year should increase to 1.5 billion euros per annum,” says Oliver Wagner, Eurowings CCO. “Eurowings Digital will further drive the rapid growth of the eCommerce business.”
The main focus of the new company: turning the digital customer interface of eurowings.com into a fast-growing travel platform. In future, as a digital travel companion, eurowings.com aims to ensure the long-term customer loyalty of approximately 40 million Eurowings customers. Both the website and the Eurowings app will offer a personalised range of digital services and products extending beyond flights from A to B. “Anyone who registers on our website, which they can use to customise hotel bookings, hire cars, event tickets and much more besides, will be happy to return,” Wagner explains. “In future, we will be able to offer our 40 million Eurowings customers even better digital services and products.”
The airline intends to invest many millions of euros in the development of the customer website and also in ‘Eurowings Digital’. For Oliver Wagner, this is money well invested. He says, “‘Eurowings Digital’ will bring together our digital sales power and our expertise and, above all, it will massively expand eurowings.com. In addition to our other very successful sales channels, this will make a significantly increased contribution to our operating income every year.”
The company will have its headquarters in Cologne. Among other things, the existing ‘eCommerce’ section will make up a large part of the new ‘Eurowings Digital’. Wagner says, “We already have excellent digital business expertise within the organisation which we intend to make the core of our new company.” Over the next few years, there are plans for up to 150 employees at ‘Eurowings Digital’ with additional experts being brought into the company in the process. The launch of ‘Eurowings Digital’ is scheduled for the end of the year.
‘Eurowings Digital’ is a clear sign of the consistent implementation of Eurowings’ digital strategy. According to Wagner, “In the future, we will move away from the classic airline model and towards a digital platform. ‘Eurowings Digital’ will be the driver of this development.”
15 May 2018
Photo: copyright (c) Eurowings
