Berliners will soon be enjoying the fruits of their local airline's intention to join Oneworld.
Prospective alliance member Air Berlin says it will launch a four times a week transatlantic service from Berlin to New York JFK in 2011.
The flights, operated by two-class A330s, will start on May 1 with departures from convenient Tegel airport at 1000 (arrival into JFK at 1245) on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday and at 1345 (arrive JFK at 1545) on Friday.
The return from JFK departs at a standard 1740, landing back in Tegel at 0730 the next morning.
The route is currently served by Delta (a member of Skyteam) and Continental (a member of Star) so Air Berlin will be competing on behalf of Oneworld. There is no direct Lufthansa service between Berlin and New York.
The carrier's chief executive said: "The non-stop flight from Berlin to New York is an important step in Air Berlin's full membership of Oneworld planned for the start of 2012."
Passengers from elsewhere on the Air Berlin European network will find a number of connecting possibilities available at Tegel. At JFK the plan is to enable Air Berlin passengers to make connections onto the American Airlines network as the latter is also a Oneworld member.
Online fares for one-way flights are €219 for economy and €906 for busines class flights. Extras to add are a €10 booking fee plus a further €45 for the new environmental tax effective on January 1, 2011.