Starting on April 1st, Eurowings will base three of its Airbus A320s at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. The low-cost leisure specialist says that with every third departure from the airport now a Eurowings flight, it is gearing up to fly the German capital’s residents to their ‘well-deserved’ holidays after lockdown ends.
Only logical, CEO says
Eurowings is stepping up its commitment in the German capital. In a show of optimism for the summer season, the Lufthansa low-cost subsidiary will open a new base at Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
While lockdowns and travel restrictions remain firmly in place, Eurowings is strategically planning for the future. At the start of next month, the carrier will station three of its Airbus A320 aircraft at BER.
“Berlin is and will remain an absolute tourist magnet and one of the most exciting metropolises in Europe, both culturally and historically. So, it’s only logical that we, as Germany’s No. 1 tourist airline, expand our presence in the capital by opening our own base. We are very pleased to soon be able to fly residents of Berlin and Brandenburg to their well-deserved vacation after the end of the lockdown,” said Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof in a statement seen by Simple Flying.
The move is partly a reactionary one, snapping up market share from other operators that have left the German market in the wake of the crisis.
“Others are leaving, we are staying here,” Mr Bischof said.
Every third flight out of BER is a Eurowings jet
Eurowings already has a strong presence at Berlin Brandenburg. In February 2021, every third departure from BER was a Eurowings flight, and the airline has taken off over 1,000 times from the airport since its inauguration in October 2020.
With the new base’s opening, the airline will connect Berlin with Cologne, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart up to thrice daily, with some days seeing even more departures. The focus will be on popular off-peak departure times.
The summer schedule from BER will supplement sun destinations such as Greece, Croatia, Corsica and Mallorca with routes catering to a growing segment of family and home visits, for example, to Beirut in Lebanon.
Potential jobs for Lufthansa layoffs
Furthermore, the stationing of aircraft and crew at BER will create more than a hundred direct jobs, the airline said. Eurowings also added that pilots and cabin crew affected by other airlines’ insolvencies or withdrawals in recent years would now have an opportunity to return to the capital.
The carrier recently secured an arrangement with trade union Verdi that will allow it to avoid laying off cabin crew and ground staff until at least March 2022. Moreover, the airline said it plans to hire former Lufthansa employees that have lost their jobs due to the crisis.
It is not only a new base in Berlin that Eurowings has its sights set tp prepare for when leisure demand begins to pick back up. The carrier announced earlier this month that it would begin offering flights from Manchester and Birmingham in the UK to holiday destinations on the Spanish Balearic islands.
Do you think this is the time for airlines to make bold moves to come out ahead as demand returns? Have you flown to or from Berlin Brandeburg yet? Tell us about it in the comment section.
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