Discover Airlines, Lufthansa Group’s leisure subsidiary headquartered in Frankfurt, marked a double milestone on 27 October 2025 by launching two nonstop long-haul routes on the same day: flight 4Y156 from Frankfurt (FRA) to Mahé, Seychelles, and flight 4Y4 from Munich (MUC) to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
The inaugural services departed almost fully booked, underscoring Germans’ pent-up appetite for exotic winter-sun destinations and the airline’s strategy of funnelling leisure demand through Germany’s two largest hubs. Frankfurt–Seychelles had originally been scheduled as a seasonal winter route, but strong forward bookings have persuaded the carrier to operate year-round, offering twice-weekly frequencies (Tuesdays and Sundays) and timed connections to Germany’s dense domestic network.
From Munich, Discover becomes the first airline to link Bavaria directly with Punta Cana, creating a competitive alternative to Frankfurt departures and supporting Munich Airport’s ambition to rebuild its long-haul portfolio after the pandemic. The Dominican service will run Wednesdays and Sundays with an additional Monday rotation during peak holiday periods, using Airbus A330-900 aircraft configured with 24 business-class, 40 premium-economy and 235 economy seats.
For corporate mobility managers, the new routes broaden one-stop options to Southern Africa and the Caribbean via German hubs, easing pressure on Lufthansa’s premium long-haul capacity and enabling price-competitive mixed-class itineraries. Importantly, the Seychelles flight also supports Germany’s Mittelstand engineering firms active in the western Indian Ocean region, who had relied on complex double-connect routings since Condor ended its FRA-SEZ link in 2019.
Discover Airlines says the dual launch signals the start of a growth phase that will see five additional leisure long-haul destinations from Germany announced before the end of 2025, leveraging Lufthansa Group joint-venture feed with United, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines. Travel buyers should audit corporate booking tools to ensure the new fare classes are visible and to brief travellers on Schengen exit requirements under the new EU Entry/Exit System now in force.
The inaugural services departed almost fully booked, underscoring Germans’ pent-up appetite for exotic winter-sun destinations and the airline’s strategy of funnelling leisure demand through Germany’s two largest hubs. Frankfurt–Seychelles had originally been scheduled as a seasonal winter route, but strong forward bookings have persuaded the carrier to operate year-round, offering twice-weekly frequencies (Tuesdays and Sundays) and timed connections to Germany’s dense domestic network.
From Munich, Discover becomes the first airline to link Bavaria directly with Punta Cana, creating a competitive alternative to Frankfurt departures and supporting Munich Airport’s ambition to rebuild its long-haul portfolio after the pandemic. The Dominican service will run Wednesdays and Sundays with an additional Monday rotation during peak holiday periods, using Airbus A330-900 aircraft configured with 24 business-class, 40 premium-economy and 235 economy seats.
For corporate mobility managers, the new routes broaden one-stop options to Southern Africa and the Caribbean via German hubs, easing pressure on Lufthansa’s premium long-haul capacity and enabling price-competitive mixed-class itineraries. Importantly, the Seychelles flight also supports Germany’s Mittelstand engineering firms active in the western Indian Ocean region, who had relied on complex double-connect routings since Condor ended its FRA-SEZ link in 2019.
Discover Airlines says the dual launch signals the start of a growth phase that will see five additional leisure long-haul destinations from Germany announced before the end of 2025, leveraging Lufthansa Group joint-venture feed with United, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines. Travel buyers should audit corporate booking tools to ensure the new fare classes are visible and to brief travellers on Schengen exit requirements under the new EU Entry/Exit System now in force.
