Lufthansa boosts its presence in Berlin

35 aircraft on Berlin routes
At the moment, the Lufthansa Group and its partner airlines account for a quarter of the 21 million passengers in Berlin. To increase this share substantially, the Group is to deploy a total of 35 aircraft on routes to and from Berlin from summer next year. Lufthansa will station an Airbus fleet of 15 jets from the A320 family at BER Airport. Altogether, 23 Airbuses (A321, A320, A319) will ply Berlin routes under the Lufthansa flag. They will be supplemented, as today, by flights operated by other members of the Lufthansa airline group - Germanwings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and bmi - bringing the total number of Lufthansa Group aircraft on routes to and from Berlin to 35.

The additional capacity in Berlin means that more staff are required. Around 130 pilots and more than 200 additional flight attendants are needed solely for the Lufthansa jets stationed at the new airport, which are to be deployed in German and European point-to-point traffic. The recruitment process will take place in the Berlin region in the months ahead. Furthermore, the Lufthansa Group's planned growth in Berlin will create several hundred new jobs in and around the capital city's new airport.

30 new Lufthansa destinations - route network to grow from eight to 38 destinations
In future, passengers from Berlin and Brandenburg will be able to choose from a vastly expanded LH route network, with 28 new European destinations and two new Middle Eastern destinations. The new flight plan runs from 3 June 2012 and includes a total of 38 non-stop Lufthansa connections. Together with the other airlines in the Lufthansa Group and the Star Alliance partners, there are a total of 49 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa on offer. Compared with the current flight plan, the additions to next summer's flight timetable represent a fivefold increase in capacity. The main European cities and those most popular with passengers will be served by frequent direct flights from Berlin in future, often with services at both ends of the day, i.e. with outbound and return journeys in the morning and evening. New LH destinations currently without a non-stop service from Berlin include Valencia, Bologna and Birmingham.

This will mean an increase in the number of scheduled Lufthansa take-offs and landings in Berlin to more than a thousand a week in the 2012 summer flight timetable. This represents a rise of 35 per cent. The number of seats available from Berlin will go up by more than 40 per cent and total available seat kilometres will nearly double. At the same time, Lufthansa will arrange the flight plan to suit the demands of the Berlin/Brandenburg clientele, with optimal departure times for local passengers to join flights.