German leisure carrier Discover Airlines, formerly Eurowimgs Discover, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa and serves vacation-oriented destinations throughout the Mediterranean, North America, the Black Sea, the Carribean, and Africa as the latter airline’s competitor to Condor, itself once owned by Lufthansa. Of its 11 North American destinations, 7 of them are in the United States, and 3 of those are in Florida, reflecting the strong tourist demand from European vacationers for routes to the Sunshine State. While Discover serves obvious stalwarts such as Orlando and Tampa, its third Floridian destination is one that might raise a few eyebrows: Fort Myers, in Southwest Florida. Operating on Thursdays and Saturdays, Discover currently provides the only intercontinental service from Fort Myers as well as a convenient way to get to the Gulf Coast of Florida’s world-famous beaches.
Server: Solo
Airline: Discover Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A330-300
Origin: Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Destination: Southwest Florida International Airport, Fort Myers, Florida (RSW)
Flight Number: 4Y60
Route: EDDF-KRSW
Seat: 24K (Economy)
Time En Route: 10 Hours 33 Minutes
On the departure level, waiting to board our aircraft, an A330-300 registered D-AIKK that’s been with Discover since 2023, and before that was a mainline Lufthansa ship, named Fürth. Right now, it’s getting ready for the trip to Florida after arriving this morning from Minneapolis.
Taxiing out for departure on Runway 25C. First impression of the economy cabin is that although it’s obviously been refurbished and brought up to a modern standard for a 17.8-year-old aircraft, it’s nothing particularly special. And that’s entirely all right with us. Discover is somewhere between a low-cost-carrier and a full-service one, and what we get reflects the pricing and is pretty much exactly what we expected.
Getting airborne by Frankfurt Tower and the Lufthansa Technik ramp
Climbout to the northwest. So far, the seats are comfortable enough, being reminiscent of the ones on American Airlines’s A330-300s shortly before they retired them. At least we have a seatback IFE screen, too, an increasing rarity in economy on mid-market and low-cost-carriers that prefer to make the IFE streaming-only in order to save on costs.
Cruising at 34,000 feet over Belgium. A lunch service has been provided and it’s surprisingly good for something that’s not the full-blown flag carrier. Again, with some exceptions like Singapore Airlines’s Scoot, dining in economy on leisure-oriented subsidiaries of large national carriers is frequently a significant downgrade. While it’s not quite what Lufthansa’s would be in economy, today that’s more likely due to the fairly quick turnaround this aircraft had.
Enjoying The Alto Knights, a crime thriller starring Robert De Niro, at our final cruising altitude of FL380 over the North Atlantic
Passing near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s iconic Missile Row as we begin our intial descent into Florida. Initally used during the late 1950s and early 1960s for development of the Convair SM-65 Atlas and Martin Marietta HGM-25A Titan I intercontinental ballistic missiles, Missile Row also was the site of all 14 Mercury-Atlas and Gemini launches. Due to the retirement of the Atlas and Titan I from the nuclear deterrent role and the moving of subsequent ICBM development to Vandenberg Air Force Base (now Space Force Base), Missile Row gradually fell into disuse, with none of the pads being operational by 2001. However, with the beginning of the NewSpace boom and subsequent developments in commercial spaceflight, Missile Row has seen a Renaissance in the past 10 years, now being used by SpaceX, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Relativity Space, Phantom Space, and Vaya Space. As of this year, the only Missile Row sites not presently under lease are LC-15 and LC-19, the site of the Gemini missions, the necessary intermediate step between Mercury and Apollo.
Arriving in the afternoon in Southwest Florida after just over 10 and a half hours in the air
Taxiing over to the B Gates
Disembarked at Gate B1. Flying with Discover was a satisfying experience overall, with the airline providing good service and amenities for the price point. The fact that it allowed us to fly directly into Fort Myers instead of requiring us to drive a couple hours from Tampa or around 3 if we took Lufthansa into Miami was a big bonus as well. Definitely will be revisiting 4Y for future trip reports!
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