Eurowings Luftverkehrs AG was formed in 1993 through the merger of Nürnberger Flugdienst (NFD) and RFG - Regionalflug in Dortmund. Albrecht Knauf initially held 98.2 percent of the Eurowings shares. Eurowings later connected several German regional airports with Amsterdam and Paris in cooperation with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France. In 1996, about 500,000 passengers were carried on these routes.[7]