Privacy policy

We are happy you are visiting our website where we offer you not only information on our company and our services, but also personalised features. When processing of your personal data, transparency and integrity are very important to us. We comply with the applicable data protection regulations, in particular the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, “BDSG”) and the Telecommunications and Telemedia Data Protection Act (Telekommunikation-Telemedien-Datenschutz-Gesetz, “TTDSG”).

This Privacy Notice explains what information (including personal data) we process while you are visiting and using our aforementioned website (“Website”) and what rights you have with respect to your personal data.

I. Who is responsible for the processing of data?

The party that is responsible for the processing of personal data, from a data protection law perspective, is Eurowings GmbH, Waldstrasse 249, 51147 Cologne, Germany. Any references in this Privacy Notice to “we” or “us” are to be construed as references to the aforementioned company.

If you have any questions or comments about data protection, please send an email to datenschutz@eurowings.com.

You can reach the Lufthansa Group data protection officer at datenschutz@dlh.de.

II. What are the principles we comply with?

In compliance with the applicable data protection regulations, we only process your personal data where this is permitted by law or where you have given your express consent to the processing. This also applies to any processing of personal data for advertising and marketing purposes.

We may also collect information on this website that, by itself, does not allow us to directly identify you. Nevertheless, this information may still be considered “personal data”, from a data protection law perspective, in specific cases, in particular when it is combined with other data. In addition, we may also collect information on this website that does not allow us to directly or indirectly identify you. This applies to aggregate information concerning all users of this website, for example.

III. What kinds of data do we process? What are the purposes and the legal basis of such processing?

You can access our website without providing any personal data (such as your name, postal address or your email address) directly. Nevertheless, even in this case we need to collect and store certain information to enable you to access our website. We also use certain analysis procedures on our website and we have integrated functionalities that are provided by third-party providers. In addition, some of the features we offer you on our website require us to collect personal data.

We collect and process personal data as follows:

Hosting and log files: When you visit this website, our web server automatically stores data and information from the end device and browser you use. In this context, we process information regarding the browser type and version, the operating system, the internet access provider, the IP address of your end device, the date and time of access, the website from which your access originates, and the pages you visit on our website. We process this technical information in the log files of our systems and do not combine it with other personal data concerning you. We process the technical information to enable you to access our website and to ensure the functionality of our website and the security of our IT systems.

We use the following hosting service to provide our website: Eurowings Aviation GmbH (“Eurowings Aviation”), Waldstr. 249, 51147 Cologne, Germany. This hosting service is the recipient of your personal data and acts as our processor. The server is located in Germany. The legal basis for the processing is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. This processing of your data is justified as the result of a weighing of interests is in our favour. Eurowings has a legitimate interest in ensuring the technical functionality of the website and the services offered on it, and in protecting the website against attacks, which is something you benefit from as well.

Cookies and tracking: We have compiled information on the cookies and tracking software we use, as well as their purposes and legal basis (or bases), in our separate Cookie/Tracking Information.

Booking data: We process the personal data required for processing your flight reservation, in particular your first and last name, your billing address and email address, as well as information on your chosen method of payment and, as applicable, passport/visa information. You may voluntarily provide additional information (e.g. your mobile telephone number). In some cases we also process information concerning your health, for example information related to special medical needs during the flight (e.g. use of a wheelchair). The required information is marked as such on our website. If you do not provide this information, you cannot complete the booking process. We process this data to perform our contractual obligations in accordance with Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. These obligations include the following, without limitation:

  • Issuing flight documents and related notifications based on our legal obligation

  • Sending booking confirmations

  • Managing the check-in process

  • Providing the flight-related services you booked and provide flight-related information (e.g. e-journals or luggage service)

  • Collection and processing of personal data for the purpose of lounge management

  • Collecting and transmitting contact data that is requested by the local authorities on the basis of compulsory legal regulations and is therefore required to perform the contract of carriage

Passenger rights, accidents and loss of baggage: We process your personal data to grant passenger rights (e.g. in the event of flight delays), in connection with accidents or incidents involving your baggage or in other cases on the basis of our legal obligations. The legal basis for processing is Article 6(1)(c) GDPR. This includes in particular

  • Collection of booking-related data to grant passenger rights in the event of flight delays, flight cancellations and non-granting of transport due to flight overbooking or aircraft changes in accordance with EU Regulation 261/2004

  • Collection of health-related data to grant the rights of passengers with disabilities or reduced mobility in accordance with EU Regulation 1107/2006

  • Collection of baggage-related data in connection with lost or damaged baggage or accidents in accordance with EU Regulation 889/2002, which supplements Council Regulation (EC) No 2027/97

  • Collection of data in connection with the transport of animals in accordance with EU Regulation 1/2005

Direct mailing to existing customers: We use your email address for sending advertising and flight-related information and offers by email. This includes check-in reminders, offering you extra services for your flight (seating, travelling with an item of baggage, catering, more leg room), and for carrying out surveys related to offered services. We process your data only in the event that we have received your email address from you in connection with the sale of a product or service; when you have not refused consent to the use of your email address, and when we have clearly notified you of your right to revoke your consent to its use by us at the time we received it and each time it is used. Your address is used solely for the direct marketing of our products or similar services. The legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in accordance with Article 6(1)(f) GDPR as well as Paragraph 7(3) UWG (Unfair Competition Act). Our legitimate interest prevails because our customers presumably wish to be informed about their booked flight and other similar products and services. We store your data for the period necessary for providing flight-related emails. To this end, we share your personal data with our service providers, with whom we have entered into relevant data processing agreements.

Disclosure of data to public authorities: An increasing number of destination countries (in the future possibly also EU Member States) require us, as an airline, to transmit passenger data upon entering or leaving a country, in some cases even when just flying over the relevant country (API data (“Advanced Passenger Information”), PNR data). The relevant legal regulations usually include the transmission of data concerning the identity and travel documents (passport, visa) of the passengers and crew members that were taken on board the plane. We do not collect all of this data right away when a flight is booked; in many cases, such data is collected shortly before departure, where applicable using the “machine readable zone” of travel documents that were issued more recently. In addition, Eurowings has a duty to disclose your personal data to domestic and foreign law enforcement, judicial or administrative authorities where they need such data to prevent or prosecute criminal or administrative offences or to perform their administrative obligations. We only process such data to transmit it to the authorities of the relevant destination country in compliance with our legal obligations; the legal basis is Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.

Contact persons: Applying Regulation (EU) 996/2010 on the investigation and prevention of accidents and incidents in civil aviation, we offer each passenger the opportunity to provide the name of a contact person we should contact if the need arises using our call centre. This information is linked to the booking, is only used to comply with the aforementioned Regulation, and is deleted 48 hours after the last flight of the booking. The legal basis for processing this data is Article 6(1)(c) GDPR. You cannot name a contact person without providing your data.

Frequent flyer programmes provided by partners: When you book a flight, you can collect bonus points/miles that are offered by frequent flyer programmes provided by our partners. In this context we need your number for the relevant programme (e.g. the Miles & More number). We also request the information that is needed to process your booking. We transmit the programme number you provided, as well as your last name, first name, booking class, route, fare, booking code, seat number and ticket number, to ensure that the bonus points/miles can be credited to you in the relevant programme. The legal basis for this transmission is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. If your data is not provided, you cannot avail yourself of the benefits of the frequent flyer programme.

Further information on the processing of your personal data in the context of the Miles & More programme is available here.

Services offered by partners: Based on your flight data (departure, date of the return flight, destination), we provide offers for services offered by partners in the areas of car rental, rail travel, hotels and travel insurance to you while you are booking your flight. If you accept such offers, we transmit the necessary data to our partner company. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. If your data is not provided, you cannot avail yourself of the services offered by our partners.

Registration/myEurowings account: On our website, we offer you the opportunity to register and create a myEurowings account. For this purpose, we will ask you for your first and last name, your mobile telephone number, your email address and a password chosen by you. After you have registered, you can add additional information to your myEurowings account (such as additional information for future bookings, your preferences when booking a flight or payment data) and access additional information, for example on the flights you booked. When you want to access your myEurowings account, we may ask you to enter data that was already collected when you registered (in particular information that is used to identify you). We process the data relating to your myEurowings account to provide this feature to you; the legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. We cannot provide your myEurowings account without such personal data.

Registration / EW4Business account: Our website offers you the opportunity to register and create an EW4Business account. We will ask you for your first name and last name, your mobile number, and your email address. Following registration, you may also add further information to your EW4Business account and view details regarding bookings made with this account. When accessing your EW4Business account, we may ask you for information previously collected during registration (particularly for verification purposes). We use your personal data solely for delivering and managing this business customer portal, for communications with you, and, where necessary, for complying with legal obligations. Your data is processed on the basis of art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR for the performance of the contractual relationship. An EW4Business account cannot be made available without personal data relating to the contact partner of the business in question. Your data will be stored for the period necessary for fulfilling the indicated purposes, and will be deleted immediately upon unsubscribing from the EW4Business account. Data processed in connection with a flight booking will be deleted no later than the expiration of the legally prescribed retention period (max 10 years).

Newsletter: If you have signed up for our newsletter, we process your email address and any information you enter into your myEurowings accounts on the basis of your consent in order to send you information tailored to your interests about our services, offers and promotions, credit card and selected partner companies from the travel and transport segments (e.g. flat-rate trips, hotels, car rentals, insurances, events, tours and activities). We also analyse the data created by sending and receiving your emails in an aggregated and anonymised form (delivery rate, opening rate, click rates, conversion rate, cancellation rate, bounce rate, visits, bookings, revenue) for evaluating the success and use of our emails. We also analyse the data create through the receipt and use of these emails (opening time, clicked hyperlinks, downloaded documents) as a basis for sending you more personalised information in future emails, which consider your interests and needs as best as possible. Navigation data (details on flight searches, including departure location and destination, flight date, passenger numbers, etc.), for example, a flight search for a specific route or cancelling a flight booking (abandoned cart, retargeting) on our website is used for personalising the newsletter. We store your data for the period needed to provide this newsletter to you. You are not required to provide personally identifiable information. However, without your email address, we are unable to provide you with our newsletter. We process your data solely for selecting personalised content and for sending the newsletter within the scope of the consent you have given us. For this purpose, we share your personal data with our service providers, with whom we have entered into relevant data processing agreements. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. You may revoke your consent to Eurowings GmbH at any time with effect from that point in time by clicking on the unsubscribe link found in every email.

Personalised customer communication: We would like to make your use of our services as convenient and efficient as possible by personalising the booking process. For this purpose we process information relating to prior bookings and any preferences specified in your profile to immediately show you the options that are relevant to you in the booking process or set respective defaults. This allows you to books flights, change bookings, or purchase additional services more quickly, i.e., without having to look for the offers that are of interest to you among the multitude of the options offered yourself. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
Flight recommendations:
When you log in to the myEurowings account on our booking portal, you will first get to the dashboard. We process the information stored in your profile concerning prior bookings to show you the flight that probably is most interesting to you as a recommendation. For example, where you have booked other flights to the same destination airport in the past, we would show you the same or similar connections as a recommendation on the dashboard, so that you can select such connection again without having to look for it among the multitude of suggestions provided. Of course, you can also choose another connection from the alternative options that are still displayed below the recommendation.

Contact us: Among other options, you can contact us using our contact form, by email, social media, or using the form for a review of a compensation claim in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation 261/04. In this context, we collect all data provided by you and store this data to the extent this is necessary to process your request. As applicable, your data will be stored for a longer period of time after your request has been processed for evidentiary purposes. The legal basis is Article 6(1) (b) and (f) GDPR.

Telephone calls: When you contact us by telephone, we process your data to process your request. We only record telephone calls for training purposes and to improve our services with your consent. The legal basis for data processing is either your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR) and/or complying with your request in accordance with Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. In all cases, your data will be processed by our customer service provider with whom we have executed a contract data processing agreement. You are not required to give your consent for the purpose of recording the telephone call. If you do not provide your data that is required for responding to your request, we cannot process your request made by telephone

Web chat: When you use our online chat for support, we only process the data you enter. We process your personal data to provide the chat and its features to you and to provide advice and support to you to establish, perform or terminate actions that are required prior to entering into a contract or under a contract. Providing your name and your email address is voluntary. We only store this data for the duration of the chat consultation. We use software to automatically categorise and respond to chat requests. If you provide feedback regarding your chat to us, we use the anonymised chat history to further improve this software. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. The legal basis for using the chat histories for internal quality assurance purposes and for troubleshooting is based on legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Our legitimate interest consists in providing a secure method to contact us to our customers.

Social media: Eurowings processes image and video recordings to reuse them on our social media channels (e.g. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or TikTok) for marketing purposes. To do this, we search the various channels for suitable image or video content and use the public comment function to ask the user for permission to use it. If the user gives their consent for use, their relevant public content will be reused by Eurowings or used for reposting on its own social media channels. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.

Participation in sweepstakes: When you participate in sweepstakes, we store your contact data and, as applicable, the booking code and the win code to conduct the sweepstakes and contact winners. Processing data to conduct and manage our sweepstakes represents the performance of a contract to which you are a party (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Statistical analyses: As necessary, we may analyse your personal data to evaluate your preferences for the purposes of interest-based marketing, personalised communications and the continuous optimisation of our business processes. This is done to better understand what our customers expect of us, and to be able to offer you communications that are tailored to your needs. In addition, these analyses help us to detect fraud, perform audits, and ensure the security of our website which means that we conduct this processing to protect our legitimate interests; the legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Processing conducted in the context of data subject rights: Where necessary, we process your data in the context of your assertion of data subject rights in accordance with Chapter 3 of the GDPR (“Rights of the data subject”). In this context we only collect all data provided by you and requested by us (e.g. name, email address, address or a copy of your national identity card) for the purpose of verifying your identity and to enable you to exercise the rights set out in Chapter 3 (e.g. the right of access or erasure). If you do not provide this data to us, we cannot process your request. The storage period that applies in the context of the exercise of data subject rights is three years. The legal basis for processing your data is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Credit worthiness check and fraud prevention: Furthermore, we process your data to verify your credit worthiness and to prevent fraud, such as credit card abuse, identity theft, obtaining special conditions or fares by fraud. To this end, payment and reservation data provided by the customer or a third party (travel agent) is checked against a corresponding set of rules and for presence on ban lists. In this context, we ensure that we are able to obtain the amount payable from you for the services supplied. Our legitimate interest to protect ourselves against material damage and illegal activities and to prevent the abuse of our products and services prevails over your interest to not have your personal data processed in this context. During the data processing, automated decision-making may occur, with the possible outcome that you are unable to complete the relevant purchase process. You have the option to contest this processing. Your information will be checked thoroughly, as will whether our decision holds.

Further legitimate interests: Insofar as it is required, we also process your data for purposes beyond those previously named to safeguard our further legitimate interests or the interests of third parties; this is carried out on the basis of Article 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interests include:

  • enforcing legal claims (e.g. collections) and our defence during legal disputes;

  • ensuring flight security, such as carrying out surveillance or ban lists in the event of individual breaches of our conditions of carriage and flight security rules;

  • the management and development of our business operation, including risk management;

  • improving the loading times of our website;

  • improving our products and services, such as through the pseudonymised analysis of qualitative customer feedback, such as from surveys, webchats or social media channels.

IV. Am I required to provide data?

The information that is required for booking a flight, registering a myEurowings account and subscribing to our email information is marked as required information in the relevant area of our website (e.g. an online form); if you do not provide required information, we cannot enable your use of the relevant feature.

Where we collect additional personal data from you, we will inform you at the time of collecting this information whether the provision of such data is required by law or under a contract or necessary for entering into a contract. In this context we usually mark that part of the information that would be provided voluntarily and which does not need to be provided to fulfil any of the aforementioned obligations or enter into a contract.

V. Who will receive my data?

In general, your personal data will be processed within our company. Based on the type of the personal data, it can only be accessed by certain departments/organisational units. They specifically include the departments that are responsible for providing our services and our IT department. A role and authorisation concept ensures that access within our company is limited to the functions and scope that are required for the relevant purpose of processing the data.

We may also transmit your personal data to third parties outside of our company where this is permitted by law. Such external recipients include the following, without limitation:

  • associated companies, such as Miles & More GmbH as the operator of the frequent fliers and bonus programme for Eurowings;

  • other airlines of the Lufthansa Group, such as Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings Discover GmbH, SWISS International Air Lines AG, with which Eurowings works in the areas of flight security and fraud prevention.

  • Service providers we use to provide our services where the transmission is required to perform the contracts executed with us, for example ground handling services, call centres or travel partners;

  • Other airlines (e.g. wet lease partners) and airports along your route or where your flight lands;

  • Business partners, for example related to hotel bookings, insurance services or car rental services, that act as independent controllers;

  • IT service providers, to operate and maintain our IT infrastructure (e.g. IT maintenance, IT support and development, or cloud and hosting service providers);

  • Credit institutions and payment service providers for billing and payment processing purposes;

  • Shipping service providers, media and marketing agencies (e.g. for market research, advertising communication or campaign management);

  • Advisors or consulting firms (e.g. lawyers, auditors);

  • Collection service providers and lawyers, to collect debts and to enforce claims in court;

  • Public authorities (e.g. customs authorities, the German Federal Aviation Authority, financial authorities, the police, the public prosecutor’s office, supervisory authorities), to the extent we are required to transmit your personal data due to legal obligations (e.g. entry requirements, police and investigation activities or matters concerning aviation security).

  • In the event of a flight cancellation, it may be necessary to share your personal data with another airline in order to offer you an alternative travel option.

VI. Do you use automated decision-making?

We do not use automated decision-making (including profiling), as defined in Article 22 GDPR, in the context of operating our website. Where we use such procedures in individual cases, you will be informed about this separately to the extent required by law.

VII. Is data transmitted to countries outside of the EU/the EEA?

In general, your personal data is processed within the EU and/or the European Economic Area.

In certain cases, data may be transmitted to recipients in countries referred to as “third countries”. Third countries are countries outside of the European Union or the Agreement on the European Economic Area with respect to which it is not necessarily possible to assume that they have a data protection level comparable to the one applied in the European Union.

Where the information transmitted also includes personal data and we are not required to transmit such data due to a legal obligation (e.g. Advance Passenger Information), we ensure that the required appropriate level of data protection is guaranteed in the relevant third country or for the recipient in such third country before we transmit such data. This confirmation may, in particular, be based on what is referred to as an “adequacy decision” issued by the European Commission which determines that an appropriate level of data protection exists in a specific third country as a whole. Alternatively, we can also base the data transmission on what is referred to as “EU Standard Contractual Clauses” which are agreed with a recipient. In these cases we have provided appropriate safeguards, as defined in Article 46 GDPR, to ensure the required level of data protection. We will gladly provide further information regarding the suitable and appropriate safeguards for complying with an appropriate level of data protection to you upon request; you will find our contact data at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. Further information regarding the current EU Standard Contractual Clauses is available here. Information regarding the current adequacy decisions issued by the EU is available here.

VIII. For how long do you store my data?

Your personal data is erased when it is no longer required for the specified purposes. However, as applicable, we may be required to continue to store your data until the expiry of the retention obligations and periods imposed by the legislator or supervisory authorities which may be set out in the German Commercial Code, the German Tax Code, and the German Money Laundering Act and regularly are between six and ten years. In addition, we may keep your data until the expiry of the legal limitation periods (which are usually three years) where this is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. After the expiry of such periods, the relevant data is erased routinely.

We may also continue to store the data if we do not have a legitimate interest in cases where we have a legal obligation to do so (for example, to comply with retention obligations). We also erase your personal data without any action on your part as soon as we no longer need it to fulfil the processing purpose or where the storage of such data is otherwise unlawful.

In general:

  • log data is erased within thirty days where it does not need to be stored beyond such period for purposes provided for by law, such as detecting abuse or recognising and remediating technical problems;

  • data processed in the context of booking a flight is erased, at the latest, upon the expiry of the statutory retention periods (a maximum of ten years); and

  • data processed in the context of registering a myEurowings account is erased when the customer account is deleted.

  • data that is processed in the context of communicating with customers is erased, at the latest, upon the expiry of a maximum period of five years (Regulation (EC) No. 261/2004).

  • data that is collected to process a request made by you and to provide the chat and to document your specific chat inquiry or for internal quality assurance purposes is stored until your request has been processed unless there are statutory retention obligations; data collected in the context of sweepstakes is stored for as long as it is needed to conduct and manage the sweepstakes unless a longer statutory retention period applies.

  • We store conversations that are recorded in the context of telephone calls with our customer service until you revoke your consent or for a maximum period of 90 days unless longer retention periods are provided for by law.

IX. What are my rights?

  1. The right to object, in accordance with Article 21 GDPR
    You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is based on Article 6(1) (e) or (f) GDPR; this also applies to any profiling carried out based on those provisions. If you object, we will no longer process the personal data concerning you, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or where the data is processed for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
    Where we process the personal data concerning you for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of the personal data concerning you for the purpose of such marketing; this also applies to profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. Where you object to the processing of your data for direct marketing purposes, the personal data concerning you will no longer be processed for these purposes.
    In the context of the use of information society services, and notwithstanding Directive 2002/58/EC, you may exercise your right to object by automated means using technical specifications.

  2. Revoking your consent
    Where you have given your consent (e.g. in the context of information sent by email), you can revoke such consent at any time with future effect. In the information we send by email, we usually provide a link for this purpose in each of our newsletters. You also have other options for contacting us, e.g. you can send a notification by regular mail, by fax or by email, using one of the ways to contact us that are provided on the first page of this Privacy Notice. The revocation of your consent does not apply retroactively and therefore does not affect the lawfulness of data processing performed until the date of revocation.

  3. Additional rights
    As a data subject, you have the following rights:
    - The right of access to the personal data stored about you, Article 15 GDPR;
    - The right to have inaccurate or incomplete data rectified, Article 16 GDPR;
    - The right to have personal data erased, Article 17 GDPR;
    - The right to restriction of processing, Article 18 GDPR; and
    - The right to data portability, Article 20 GDPR

To exercise these rights, you can contact us at any time by sending an email to datenschutz@eurowings.com.

The postal address is:

Datenschutz-Team Eurowings
Waldstr. 249
51147 Cologne
Germany

Please provide the following information in this context which allows us to verify your identity:

  • Name

  • Postal address

  • Email address and either: customer number or booking code and/or ticket number

In accordance with Article 77 GDPR, in conjunction with section 19 of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority responsible for Eurowings is:

Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen

Kavalleriestr. 2–4

40213 Dusseldorf
Germany

Telephone: +49 (0)211 384 240

Fax: +49 (0)211 3842 4999

Email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de