German carrier Condor is nixing two longstanding U.S. nonstops and one Canadian route, dropping service to Frankfurt (FRA) from Baltimore (BWI), Halifax (YHZ), and Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) from its schedule in 2025.
Condor had been scheduled to resume flights to all three cities from May through September next year, according to schedule data from the aviation analytics company Cirium. But as of Monday morning, the airline stopped selling those nonstop fares – nor are they available through any of Condor's partners or many third-party platforms like Google Flights.
The airline and Minneapolis airport's governing board confirmed Monday afternoon that the routes would end, both citing a recent German court ruling that went against Condor.
The German government had previously forced Lufthansa – the country’s largest carrier by far and previously Condor’s parent company turned competitor – to carry Condor passengers on connections throughout Germany. But with that arrangement coming to an end after a recent German high court ruling, Condor may have had trouble filling its planes with enough passengers to make even some of its longstanding North American destinations workable.
“As a result, we regretfully have had to make the difficult decision to suspend seasonal service for summer 2025 some markets like … Baltimore (BWI), Minneapolis (MSP) in the U.S. and Halifax (YHZ) in Canada,” a Condor spokesperson said in a statement.
Condor's major expansion into the U.S. turned heads coming out of the pandemic, especially with its fancy new A330-900neo aircraft with a unique paint job and an excellent lie-flat business class seat onboard.
But none of the three cities dropped on Monday were new entrants. Aside from a pandemic pause, Condor has consistently flown to and from Minneapolis over the summer for more than a decade, according to data from Cirium. Baltimore-to-Frankfurt flights go back a bit further, while Condor's service to Halifax dates back to at least 2003.
This is the second time in the last two months that a German airline has ditched Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) as a destination. After launching service just this past summer, Lufthansa announced it will drop its Minneapolis route this coming spring, handing the route over to low-cost subsidiary Discover. Lufthansa and airport officials have said that handoff will be temporary.
Condor still has a large presence throughout the U.S. and Canada, particularly with summer seasonal service to get travelers across the pond during the warmer months. Its network map includes year-round flights to Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York City (JFK), Seattle (SEA), and Toronto (YYZ) as well as seasonal service to Anchorage (ANC), Boston (BOS), Calgary (YYC), Edmonton (YEG), Las Vegas (LAS), Phoenix (PHX), Portland (PDX), San Antonio (SAT), San Francisco (SFO), and Vancouver (YVR).
A Condor spokesperson did not explicitly list Edmonton, Phoenix, or San Antonio among the 12 North American gateways it would continue flying to and from next year.
This is a breaking news story. Check back to Thrifty Traveler for updates.