hours, with some flights delayed more than 20 hours. Lufthansa stated that unexpected technical difficulties and a small fleet were to blame; Eurowings started its first seven long-haul routes with only one own aircraft. Shortly after, Eurowings again faced severe public outrage and negative media coverage, after one of their flights from Varadero to Cologne was delayed by more than 60 hours with passengers with visas whose validity had run out stuck in their hotels. In January 2016, Eurowings cancelled their planned service from Cologne to Tehran, and reduced Dubai flights from year-round to seasonal service. Lufthansa also announced the establishment of a task force in the same month. Its brief would be to eliminate the operational problems which lead to serious delays and to increase operational reliability. In July 2016, it was made public that Eurowing's owner Lufthansa was considering taking over part of the route network, staff and aircraft leases from Air Berlin, which would then be made part of the Eurowings operations. In August 2016, Eurowings announced further changes to its long-haul operations. The routes to Boston and to Dubai, which had already been changed from year-round to seasonal, were terminated. Boston was only served for three months. Shortly after, Eurowings also announced it would terminate its last route to Moscow, and therefore Russia, due to low demand. Also in August 2016, Eurowings announced it would open its second Austrian base after Vienna, at Salzburg Airport, with flights to six European metropolitan destinations from January 2017. In December 2016, it was announced that Air Berlin would wet-lease a total of 38 Airbus A319/A320 aircraft for six years to Lufthansa Group's Eurowings (33 aircraft) and Austrian Airlines (five), starting from February 2017. As a result, Eurowings will phase out Germanwings' older A320s. On 15 February 2017, Eurowings retired their last Bombardier CRJ900 after a flight from Karlsruhe to Hamburg. All CRJ900s have been handed over to Lufthansa CityLine and replaced by larger Airbus A320-200s, as part of the transformation from a regional into a low-cost carrier. In February 2018, Eurowings announced the relocation of all its long-haul routes currently operated from Cologne Bonn Airport to Düsseldorf Airport, from which it already flies long-haul routes, by late October 2018 to strengthen their presence there. This leaves Düsseldorf and Munich Airport as Eurowings' long-haul bases. Recent developments In March 2019, the Lufthansa Group announced that starting in October 2019, Eurowings