Easyjet and Ryanair are reducing their flight program in Berlin - and the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is using this gap. From the summer, it will be offering twice as many routes as before. Some of the new goals have already been set.
The low-cost airline Eurowings is doubling its fleet at the capital's BER airport and is also expanding its flight schedule. The Lufthansa subsidiary will station six machines in Berlin for the summer flight schedule from the end of March 2023, said Eurowings boss Jens Bischof in Berlin. A fourth aircraft is already being added to the current winter programme.
In the summer they offer almost 30 destinations, twice as many as before. Among the new destinations already set are Malaga, Alicante, Antalya, Larnaca and Rhodes. More are being planned. The low-cost airline is also increasing the offer between BER and Northern Europe, from March Copenhagen, Gothenburg and Helsinki will be served from Berlin. In terms of seat capacity, Eurowings spoke of 130 percent growth. "Others are withdrawing, we are building up," said Bischof with a dig at the international competition.
"Berlin is and will remain an absolute tourist magnet and one of the most exciting metropolises in Europe, both culturally and historically. It is only logical that we, as a German airline, expand our presence and bring more Eurowings to the capital," said Bischof. "The doubling of the aircraft fleet and connections at the capital's airport by Eurowings are a strong sign," adds Aletta von Massenbach, CEO at BER.
Eurowings is thus filling a gap left by other airlines in Berlin. The English low-cost airline Easyjet had announced that it would reduce its fleet from 18 to eleven aircraft. The Irish Ryanair is also thinning out its flight schedule in Berlin. Europe's largest low-cost airline is reducing its winter program for the capital - for the pre-crisis winter of 2019/20 - by 40 percent. That's 230 weekly flights. Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary justified this with excessive airport charges.
