Lufthansa Group subsidiary Eurowings will establish a base in Graz (GRZ), Austria´s second largest city.

From summer 2023, the carrier will operate to 12 destinations and base one Airbus A320 aircraft at GRZ.

Flights will be operated by Eurowings subsidiary Eurowings Europe, which received its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) and Air Operator License (AOL) from the Malta Civil Aviation Directorate in October. The operation had previously been located in Vienna.

Eurowings Europe will operate around 25 weekly frequencies from Graz to the German cities of Berlin (BER), Dusseldorf (DUS), Hamburg (HAM) and Stuttgart (STR).

Also to be served from GRZ are leisure destinations Chania (CHQ), Corfu (CFU), Karpathos (AOK), Kos (KGS) and Rhodes (RHO) in Greece; Larnaca (LCA) in Cyprus; Palma de Mallorca (PMI) in Spain; and Hurghada (HRG) in Egypt.

“Our expansion is a strong commitment to Graz as an air traffic location and the entire region,” Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof said in a statement.

GRZ is the largest regional airport in Austria’s Alpe-Adria region. Besides southern Austria, the airport’s catchment area includes parts of Hungary, Italy and Slovenia.

Austrian-registered Eurowings Europe GmbH will be transferred to the Malta-based Eurowings Europe Limited by April 2023. Eurowings Europe operates 20 A320 family aircraft and has around 700 employees, a spokesperson told the Aviation Week Network.