Why Eurowings gave Wings’ summer cover to Aurélie Carina
From cabin to cover: the Lufthansa low-cost carrier handed the July-August 2026 issue of its inflight magazine to a serving crew member, departing from Wings’ own house style, to do it.
Written by Sunil Kalia, founder of inflightmagazines.com, a digital platform that brings inflight magazine content to a global audience beyond the flight.
This article discusses the July-August 2026 issue of Wings, Eurowings’ inflight magazine - the only human-subject front cover in the magazine’s last ten issues. Written from the perspective of inflightmagazines.com, an online inflight magazine directory founded by a former British Airways passenger experience specialist with over 15 years in cabin product and service development, including the Concorde and First Class brands, and served on BA’s Airbus A380 Introduction-into-Service project team as Inflight Services Project Manager.
inflightmagazines.com documents a format that has shaped the passenger travel experience for more than seven decades.
Key takeaways
The article draws on verified primary sources and the issue’s own imprint page to document a deliberate departure from a predictable run of landscape and destination cover photography.
Eurowings placed 22-year-old flight attendant and Germany’s Next Topmodel (GNTM) 2026 winner Aurélie Carina on the cover of the July-August 2026 issue of its inflight magazine Wings, published on 1 July 2026 (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026).
The cover is the only human-subject front cover in Wings’ last ten issues, spanning March 2025 to September 2026, a measurable break from a two-year run of nature, landscape and destination photography (Wings, ink-global.com).
The cover photo is credited to Eurowings itself in the issue’s masthead, not to a named freelance photographer, reinforcing the reading of the cover as an airline-produced brand asset rather than an editorial commission (Wings issue July-August 2026, imprint page).
Wings is published by Eurowings GmbH (Düsseldorf) on behalf of the airline by London-based inflight-media specialist Ink (Ink Global), under a partnership Ink describes as running for more than 15 years and edited by Ink Associate Editor Lydia Polzer (Ink Global - Eurowings partnership; Wings issue July-August 2026, imprint page).
The issue was distributed in seatback pockets across Eurowings’ European network for two months and was expected to reach around five million passengers during the peak summer season (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026).
Aurélie Carina has said publicly that she does not intend to leave her flight attendant job at Eurowings (Bild, 30 June 2026; Eurowings Newsroom, 29 May 2026).
The story in one paragraph
Eurowings gave the July-August 2026 cover of its inflight magazine Wings to Aurélie Carina, a 22-year-old member of its own cabin crew who won the 21st season of Germany’s Next Topmodel (GNTM) in the Hollywood final on 28 May 2026 (Eurowings Newsroom, 29 May 2026; Wikipedia - Aurélie Carina).
The cover - Aurélie in her Eurowings uniform in front of an aircraft, forming a heart with her hands, under the line “Einfach Aurélie! Triff ‘Germany’s Next Topmodel’ über den Wolken” is the first time in recent Wings history that a serving Eurowings employee has taken the front page, replacing the magazine’s usual nature and destination imagery (Joyn, 3 July 2026).
Who is Aurélie Carina?
Aurélie Carina is a 22-year-old Eurowings cabin crew member from Pulheim near Cologne who won the 21st season of GNTM on 28 May 2026 (Eurowings Newsroom, 29 May 2026; Wikipedia - Aurélie Carina).
Born in 2003, Aurélie has German-Brazilian heritage and had served for several years as a Eurowings crew member before entering the show (Eurowings Newsroom, 29 May 2026).
She took the title in the Hollywood final ahead of Anna Hilger and Daphne Mikaela (t-online Köln, 29 May 2026). Her GNTM prize package included €100,000 and a cover shoot for Harper’s Bazaar Germany (Wikipedia - Aurélie Carina).
Aurélie has been consistent about her plans since winning. Asked about her flight attendant job by Bild, she said: “You can be both - on the cover and in the service of others. That’s exactly what makes me” (Bild, 30 June 2026).
A Eurowings spokesperson told t-online: “Aurélie is a flight attendant with heart and soul and has signalled that she wants to continue her employment at Eurowings” (t-online Köln, 29 May 2026).
The Wings feature, written by Gaby Drawe, includes material no other outlet has published. Speaking to Wings, Aurélie reflected on the disorientation of sudden fame:
“I’m a totally normal girl like any other - and suddenly everyone knows me and wants a photo with me. It’s completely crazy” (Wings issue July-August 2026, p. 142).
She also drew a direct parallel between her two roles: “Neither of them is a classic nine-to-five job. You are constantly meeting new people, working closely in a team, and you have to show presence, empathy and professionalism in every situation” (Wings issue July - August 2026, p. 144).
The same feature adds one biographical detail missing from earlier coverage: before entering GNTM, Aurélie had on-stage experience as a cheerleader in the Rhineland, “where she discovered her love of appearing before an audience” (Wings issue July - August 2026, p. 142).
Why did Eurowings put Aurélie on the Wings cover?
Eurowings put Aurélie on the Wings cover as a public gesture of employer recognition after her GNTM win, describing the placement as “our most sincere way of saying: We are proud of you” in a 1 July 2026 press release (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026). The airline framed the decision explicitly in fashion-industry terms.
“In the fashion industry, a cover symbolises recognition, visibility, and exceptional achievement,” CEO Max Kownatzki said in the same release. “Dedicating the latest issue of WINGS to Aurélie is our most sincere way of saying: We are proud of you.” He described the placement internally as Eurowings’ “Cover of the Year”, a line the airline’s German-language release carried but that most subsequent English-language reporting dropped (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026 - German).
Two things make the gesture more than a celebrity moment:
First, Kownatzki cast Aurélie as a stand-in for the airline’s wider workforce: “She represents over 5,500 Eurowings employees who shape Eurowings” (Paddle Your Own Kanoo, 1 July 2026).
Second, the airline chose a permanent, in-cabin artefact rather than a social-media post, explicitly rejecting the idea that a congratulatory card would be enough: the German release notes that the impulse “to make an exception from this design rule came immediately after Aurélie’s final victory in Hollywood; instead of a congratulatory card, Eurowings opted for something lasting: the WINGS magazine cover” (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026 - German).
What does the cover actually look like?
The cover shows Aurélie in her Eurowings uniform, standing in front of a Eurowings aircraft, forming a heart with her hands and smiling at the camera (Joyn, 3 July 2026).
The cover line reads, in German: “Einfach Aurélie! Triff ‘Germany’s Next Topmodel’ über den Wolken” – “Simply Aurélie! Meet Germany’s Next Topmodel above the clouds” (Joyn, 3 July 2026).
The masthead of the issue credits the cover photograph simply to “Eurowings”, with no named freelance photographer - a small detail that reinforces the reading of the cover as an airline-produced brand asset rather than an editorial commission (Wings issue July-August 2026, imprint page).
The composition is worth noting because it does two things at once. It reads as a fashion editorial cover - single subject, clean background, direct-to-camera pose - while simultaneously working as employer branding, thanks to the uniform and aircraft. That dual reading is the point.
How Wings usually looks and why this cover is a break from house style
Wings has traditionally reserved its cover for what Eurowings calls “exceptional” nature photography, with human subjects rare and employee representation essentially absent (Paddle Your Own Kanoo, 1 July 2026).
The pattern is measurable. Of the ten most recent issues visible on Wings’ online archive from March 2025 through September - October 2026, nine feature landscape, aerial or destination photography (a Milky Way over lavender fields, aerial Lofoten, a lakeside cabin, a surfer at sunrise, Alpine mountain huts, huskies against a fjord, a wetland boardwalk, an Andalusian climber, palms in Al Balad, Jeddah). Only one, the July-August 2026 Aurélie issue, puts a human subject on the front (Wings, ink-global.com).
The Aurélie issue therefore represents a genuine editorial departure, not just a novelty. Eurowings’ German-language release calls it “an exception from this design rule” and notes that the decision was taken at CEO level immediately after the final (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026 - German). For a bi-monthly title with a strict visual grammar, that is a significant call.
A parallel visual-identity story is worth noting. Across the same ten-issue window, the front-cover masthead has changed twice: earlier issues carried “Wings” in mixed case; from the March-April 2026 issue, the masthead moved to all-caps “WINGS”; the current September-October 2026 issue reads “Wings Magazin”, aligning the front cover with the title used inside the imprint page (Wings archive; Wings issue September-October 2026, front cover). The Aurélie issue therefore sits inside the short-lived all-caps “WINGS” era.
Wings’ cover convention, before and after
Attribute | Typical Wings Cover | July - August 2026 Issue |
|---|---|---|
Subject | Nature, landscape, or destination photograph | Named individual (Aurélie Carina) |
Frequency in last 10 issues | 9 of 10 covers | 1 of 10 covers |
Human subjects | Rare; not employees | Serving Eurowings cabin crew member |
Purpose | Destination inspiration for passengers | Employer recognition and PR gesture |
Cover line style | Destination or theme-led | Personality-led (“Einfach Aurélie!”) |
Editorial framing | Travel and lifestyle | Fashion-editorial-meets-employer-brand |
Who publishes Wings and what was Ink’s role?
Wings is published by Eurowings GmbH (Düsseldorf) on behalf of the airline by London-based inflight-media specialist Ink (Ink Global), which has held the Eurowings partnership for more than 15 years and produces the magazine bi-monthly in English and German for distribution in more than 15,000 seatback pockets across the Eurowings fleet (Ink Global - Eurowings partnership; Wings issue July-August 2026, imprint page).
The imprint page names Matthias Eberle as the person responsible under German press law (V.i.S.d.P.), which places editorial accountability with the airline as publisher of record, a detail that helps explain why a decision to break the cover convention could be taken at CEO level.
The cover-decision editorial team on the Aurélie issue is named in full on the imprint page: Editor Lydia Polzer, Art Director Stephanie Willing, Photo Director Tracey Griffin, Picture Editor Katie Byrne, alongside sub-editors Omer Ali, Nicola Rayner and Sarah Schygulla and translation by Louise Andersen and Alexander Wolff (Wings issue July–August 2026, imprint page).
Ink’s senior team on the account is Michael Keating (CEO), Tan Parmar (Creative Director), Morgan Rees (Editorial Director), Denise Jaschke (Commercial and Performance Director), Phil McIlwaine (Head of Finance), Jonny Clark (Managing Director, Ink Studio) and Ric Stockfis (Director of Strategy and Innovation), with Aurelia Götz as Advertising Director. Polzer has edited Wings since September 2015 and describes it on her profile as reaching around six million readers per issue (Lydia Polzer, LinkedIn profile; directory entry: Wings - inflightmagazines.com).
Inside the issue, the Wings feature on Aurélie, “Zwischen Kabine und Laufsteg / Between cabin and catwalk”, on pages 142 - 144 is written by Gaby Drawe. Feature photography is credited to Max Montgomery, alongside Eurowings-supplied and private (“privat”) images (Wings issue July-August 2026, pp. 142-144).
The Ink team also publicly acknowledged its role in the cover. On 8 July 2026, Ink posted on LinkedIn that “the Wings summer issue has made headlines in Germany. Featuring cabin crew member and winner of Germany’s Next Top Model, Aurélie Carina, on the cover, it got tabloid coverage from our colleagues at BILD online and in print” (Ink Global, LinkedIn, 8 July 2026).
Polzer, in a companion post the same day, added: “Germany’s biggest tabloid was impressed with our July/August cover featuring Aurélie, who is not only one of Eurowings’ lovely cabin crew but also winner of this year’s instalment of Heidi Klum’s hit TV show Germany’s Next Topmodel” (Lydia Polzer, LinkedIn, 8 July 2026).
That trade-side reaction matters. Contract publishers rarely comment publicly on individual covers; the fact that Ink and Wings’ editor both did suggests they treated the issue internally as a high-visibility marketing win, not just a routine edition.
What does this tell us about how airlines use inflight magazine covers?
This suggests airlines recognise inflight magazine covers as brand-marketing real estate rather than pure travel-photography canvases. The Aurélie cover is the clearest example of an airline swapping its house cover style for an event-driven personality cover, turning a news moment into an in-cabin, months-long brand asset that Eurowings estimated would reach around five million passengers across the summer (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026).
Two factors make the calculation easy for an airline:
First, dwell time: unlike a social-media post that decays within days, an inflight magazine sits captive in a seatback pocket for the length of a rotation, typically a monthly or bi-monthly cycle.
Second, audience quality: Ink’s own material puts Wings’ reach at more than 15,000 seat pockets across the Eurowings fleet, with the airline’s marketing kit citing that “74% of passengers read inflight magazines” (Eurowings media kit, 2023).
A cover that ties a viral national TV moment to the airline’s brand, and to a serving employee, converts both those advantages into a single publishable image.
Glossary
Inflight magazine
A print (and sometimes digital) magazine produced for an airline’s passengers, usually distributed in seatback pockets, and sometimes selected airline lounges, and refreshed monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly.
Contract publisher
A media company that produces an inflight (or other custom) magazine on behalf of a brand under a commercial partnership; Ink Global is a contract publisher for Eurowings’ Wings.
House style
A magazine’s recurring visual and editorial conventions, including its cover treatment, typography, and subject choice.
What this means for inflightmagazines.com readers
For anyone tracking the airline publishing sector, the Aurélie cover is a small but useful data point: even a rigidly styled bi-monthly like Wings can and will break its cover rules when the brand-marketing case is strong enough. Watch for follow-ups elsewhere.
Airlines with high-visibility staff moments, such as a first female captain on a new type, a long-serving crew retirement or a viral cabin-crew moment, now have a proof-of-concept for using the inflight magazine cover as employer branding.
The bottom line
The Aurélie Carina issue matters less as a celebrity story than as an editorial one: it is a bi-monthly inflight magazine consciously departing from its own cover rules to convert a national TV moment into a two-month, in-cabin brand asset, with the airline’s contract publisher, Ink, publicly celebrating the result.
For a deeper look at how airlines are reshaping their inflight magazine strategies in 2026, see the blog on the Singapore Airlines SilverKris relaunch, and the Wings directory entry on inflightmagazines.com for publisher, editor and contact details.
Frequently asked questions
Who is on the cover of Eurowings’ Wings magazine in summer 2026?
Aurélie Carina, a 22-year-old Eurowings flight attendant from Pulheim near Cologne who won the 21st series of Germany’s Next Topmodel on 28 May 2026, is on the cover of the July-August 2026 issue of Wings. She appears in her Eurowings uniform in front of an aircraft, forming a heart with her hands (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026).
Who publishes Wings magazine for Eurowings?
Wings is published by Ink (Ink Global), a London-headquartered inflight-media specialist, under a partnership with Eurowings that Ink describes as running for more than 15 years. Wings is a bi-monthly title produced in English and German, distributed in over 15,000 seat pockets across the Eurowings fleet (Ink Global - Eurowings partnership).
Who edits Wings magazine?
Wings is edited by Lydia Polzer, Associate Editor at Ink, who has held the role since September 2015. She commissions, edits and writes the magazine’s travel and destination content and describes Wings on her own profile as reaching around six million readers per issue. On the July-August 2026 (Aurélie) issue the wider editorial and design team is Art Director Stephanie Willing, Photo Director Tracey Griffin and Picture Editor Katie Byrne, with Ink Advertising Director Aurelia Götz on the commercial side (Wings issue July-August 2026, imprint page; Lydia Polzer, LinkedIn profile).
Is Aurélie Carina still working as a flight attendant?
Aurélie is still working as a Eurowings flight attendant after winning Germany’s Next Topmodel. She told Bild that she intends to continue her cabin crew role alongside modelling, and a Eurowings spokesperson confirmed to t-online Köln that she has signalled she wants to keep her job with the airline (Bild, 30 June 2026; t-online Köln, 29 May 2026).
How long will the Aurélie Carina cover be on Eurowings aircraft?
Eurowings loaded the Aurélie Carina cover into seatback pockets from 1 July 2026 and scheduled it to remain on board for two months across the peak summer travel season, an issue window Eurowings expected to reach around five million passengers (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026).
Why is the Wings cover unusual?
The Wings cover is unusual because it is the only human-subject front cover in Wings’ last ten issues (January - February 2024 to September - October 2026); the other nine all use nature, landscape or destination photography (Wings, ink-global.com). Eurowings itself frames the cover as an exception to the magazine’s design rule, taken at CEO level immediately after Carina’s GNTM final win (Eurowings Newsroom, 1 July 2026 - German; Paddle Your Own Kanoo, 1 July 2026).
What is Germany’s Next Topmodel?
Germany's Next Topmodel (often abbreviated as GNTM) is a German reality television series based on the concept introduced by Tyra Banks with America's Next Top Model. Heidi Klum hosts the competition and serves as the lead judge and executive producer. It has been broadcast annually on the German network ProSieben since 2006. Aurélie Carina won the 21st series in the Hollywood final on 28 May 2026 (Wikipedia - Aurélie Carina; Paddle Your Own Kanoo, 1 July 2026).
Does Aurélie Carina have an Instagram Account?
Yes, Aurélie Carina is on Instagram as @aureliecarina, an account she has run publicly since her GNTM appearance and which Eurowings’ 1 July 2026 press release explicitly references.
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