Deutsche Lufthansa is closing the German charter arm of its SunExpress venture with Turkish Airlines that carried German tourists to destinations including Bulgaria and Egypt.

The German airline announced the move on June 23 as an extension of its plan to cut costs and trim its network amid slumping demand brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

SunExpress Deutschland, which operated with a fleet of 20 planes, is to shut down with the loss of 1,200 jobs. Lufthansa added that it would take over the unit’s seven Airbus SE A330 wide-body aircraft, while 11 smaller Boeing 737 jets would be transferred to SunExpress’s Turkish arm. It is to continue flying under a separate air operator’s certificate.

The surviving part of the venture is to focus on holiday flights from Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the “DACH” region) to Turkey, as well as Turkish domestic services, using a fleet of about 60 planes, including the transferred 737s.

“The company will focus on its strength in air travel into Turkey as the home carrier for Antalya and Izmir,” said Max Kownatzki, its CEO.

“We believe in a strong comeback of tourism to Turkey and in the strong, established relations between Germany, Europe and Turkey and will expand our flight schedule further over the upcoming weeks to meet demand”, Kownatzki continued.

SunExpress was founded 31 years ago as a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. It is one of the leading providers of charter and holiday flights to Turkey.

In 2019, the airline posted record revenues of more than €1.4bn and carried more than 10mn passengers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated Turkey’s tourism industry this year to date and Lufthansa is working with projections that show the holiday flights business could be hit for years to come due to anxiety and disruption caused by the health emergency.

Foreign tourist visits to Turkey hardly registered with the central statisticians in coronavirus-hit May, falling 99.26% y/y. Tourism ministry data released on June 22 showed there just 29,829 such visits.

For the first five months of this year, the figure was 4.29mn, down 66.3% y/y.