Lufthansa (LH) is to re-introduce flights between London City Airport and the German capital Berlin. However, this time the twice daily-service will operate to Tegel, the current main international airport, and not the historic city centre Tempelhof landing area.
The new LH operation will start on 14 January, 2008, operated by Lufthansa Regional partner, Eurowings, flying a BAe 146-200 four-engined jet. Flight time is 1h40min with a two-class cabin layout.
London City was first linked to Berlin in 1992, a short-lived service by German operator Conti-Flug to Tempelhof, which lasted until the middle of the Farnborough Air Show of September 1994, when the carrier went bust.
Lufthansa itself attempted the same route in 200,1 with even less success, question marks over Tempelhof itself not helping.
With the former East Berlin airport at Schoenefeld being developed and renamed Brandenburg International for 2012, and Tempelhof apparently doomed with early closure, the existing main Berlin airport at Tegel would seem to be an obvious choice for an interim route.
By March next year, Lufthansa will be operating 84 flights weekly out of London City to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Nuremburg, flown by a variety of partner carriers. Swissair, a member of the Lufthansa Group, has services to both Geneva and Zurich, the airport”s longest established jet services.
Since the previous attempts to make the route work Berlin has really established itself as the German capital, with government offices now relocated from Bonn.
It has become a leading centre for conference and exhibitions in Europe with more than 50 major trade fairs. The city also hosts the European headquarters of numerous multi-national companies.