Eurowings, the Lufthansa Group’s low-cost carrier, will expand its presence at Berlin/Brandenburg International Airport (BER) by adding eight European destinations, including two in Spain.
The Lufthansa Group budget arm will double the number of aircraft it bases at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, to six Airbus A320 family planes from three, and add at least eight new routes next summer, Eurowings said Monday.
From the end of March 2023, the company will strengthen its nearly 30 destinations and double the fleet based at the Berlin airport, adding flights to Larnaca (LCA), Cyprus; Copenhagen (CPH), Denmark; Alicante (ALC) and Malaga (AGP), Spain; Helsinki (HEL), Finland; Rhodes (RHO), Greece; Gothenburg (GSE), Sweden; and Antalya (ATY), Turkey.
In addition to overseas expansion, it will take its BER-based aircraft from three to six in the future. A fourth aircraft is already reinforcing Eurowings’ growth path in the current 2022/23 winter flight schedule.
“Others are pulling back, we are building up,” Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof said. “Berlin is and remains an absolute tourist magnet and one of the most exciting metropolises in Europe … So it’s only logical for us as a German airline to expand our presence and bring more Eurowings to the capital.”
If current schedules hold — which is unlikely — Eurowings will be the fourth largest at Berlin Brandenburg in the second quarter behind EasyJet, Ryanair, and its parent Lufthansa, Diio shows.
Berlin boasted nearly 4.4 million visitors during the first six months of the year, according to Visit Berlin data. Of those, roughly 1.4 million were foreigners. However, visitor numbers were down 35 percent compared to 2019; data for the summer is not yet available.
Passenger numbers at Brandenburg airport had recovered to about 65 percent of 2019, or 2.1 million people, in October, according to airport data. That represented a nearly 2-point improvement over September.
Eurowings is streaming into Berlin to get more market share as its competitors EasyJet and Ryanair pull back.
