German discount airline taking off from Miami, while three other foreign carriers reduce fares

It took 65 years of flying, now German discount carrier Condor Airlines will start flights next May from Miami International Airport to Frankfurt.

Condor will operate three flights a week between Miami and Germany with its flagship Airbus A330-900neo wide-body planes, the company said this week. Passengers will be able to connect from Frankfurt to more than 100 cities in Europe.

The Condor flights will have room for 310 passengers, who can choose from a range of economy and business class seats, including ones that recline to a completely flat position. All passengers will have access to touchscreen and remote-control entertainment via flat screens at each seat.

News of Condor’s upcoming new service to Germany comes as three international carriers — Qatar Airways, Norse Atlantic Airways and Aerolineas Argentinas — are temporarily cutting airfares on flights between Miami and Asia, the Middle East and select cities in Europe for travel later this year and during the winter of 2024. The lower fares should prompt more overseas travelers to visit Miami and broader South Florida.

Qatar Airways, which last year for the seventh time was named Skytrax’s Airline of the Year, started a fare sale on Sept. 6 at midnight that sets roundtrip fares as low as $790 for certain travel between Sept. 12, 2023 and March 31, 2024.

Included are flights, based on seat availability, between Miami International and Bangkok, Nairobi, Doha, Mumbai, Beirut, and Cairo. The lowest discounted fare is less than half the fare Qatar listed online on the afternoon of Sept. 6 before the sale started. To get the cheaper fares, tickets need to be purchased by Sept. 12.

Seats are limited at the discounted price and they may not be available on all flights. Also, there are several blackout dates for which no cheap fares are available. For outbound flights from the United States, they are Dec. 10-23, 2023 and for inbound flights to the U.S., they are Dec. 27, 2023 to Jan. 21, 2024. And passengers buying the cheap fares are required to stay four days or for one Sunday, whichever is longer, at their destinations before returning home.

Qatar Airways’ growth is important for the economic vitality of the middle eastern country that shares ties with Miami. The nation held the last World Cup, won by Argentina and its top soccer player Lionel Messi, now a South Florida resident playing for Inter Miami professional soccer team. The United States hosts next year’s Copa America tournament and will be a co-host city in the 2026 World Cup. Qatar also sponsors the F1, which held a race in Miami in May for the second consecutive year.

Miami airport is one of six U.S. airports participating in Qatar’s six-day fare sale, a sign that Miami is increasingly seen as an critical and growing global travel hub. The other five airports are John F. Kennedy International in New York, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International, Dallas/Fort Worth International, and Washington Dulles International airports.

That growth is what prompted discount Norwegian airline Norse Atlantic last year to start flying between South Florida and Europe. The airline launched in 2021, and its first flight took off on June 14, 2022 from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Oslo, Norway. Then in December, Norse started flying from Fort Lauderdale to Berlin, Germany.

Now Norse has a global fare sale that started on Sept. 4 and will run until Sept. 13. Between 10% and 15% of its seats on flights will be sold at the cheaper rates, Charles Duncan, president of Norse Atlantic, said in an interview.

There are blackout periods with no discounted fares between Dec. 14, 2023 and Jan. 8, 2024. However, there is currently no final date when the discount tickets must be used. The sale fares are for what Norse calls economy light seats, which is just a seat. There’s an additional charge for anything else, such as a carry bag or suitcase.

On Sept. 18, Norse will move its flight operations from Fort Lauderdale to Miami airport, in part because flying cargo is an important opportunity for the carrier. The final flights to use discounted fares from Fort Lauderdale airport will be on Sept. 17 to London and Oslo.

The next day, Norse will start flights from Miami airport to London Gatwick four times a week and to Oslo two times a week. On Dec. 12, it will start operating flights from Miami to Paris four times a week and beginning on Dec. 14, to Berlin once a week.

Norse currently has nonstop one-way flights for sale online from Fort Lauderdale or Miami to Oslo and London for $139. It also has flights from Miami to Berlin and Paris priced at $139.

Duncan said the airline expects Europeans remaining keen on vacationing in Miami, even if some are turned off by skyrocketing costs for hotels and restaurants.

“Europeans love to come and visit Miami, year round,” the airline’s president said.

Miami is also important to the Norwegian carrier because about 100 of its U.S. based flight attendants, nearly half, live in South Florida. Only New York is home to a greater number of its flight attendants.

Norse Atlantic made its decision last year to add South Florida as a flight destination, before soccer phenom Messi arrived here this summer. But Duncan said Messi certainly is putting the region high on people’s radar.

“We have been seeing that a lot of Europeans are taking advantage of these flights to come see Messi play,” Duncan said. “It’s raised the profile of Miami within Europe.”

Meanwhile, state-owned airline Aerolineas Argentinas understands that, too. It began cutting fares to $571 roundtrip in August on flights between Buenos Aires and Miami.

The initial promotion was good for travel until Dec, 10, 2023. It was extended to include travel between Jan. 1, 2024 and March 31, 2024, said Marcelo Bottini, regional director for Aerolineas Argentinas. Discounted tickets can be purchased anytime during that three-month period.