The fallout of replacement Berlin Airport continues, with Lufthansa making a major retreat and service axe for services from Berlin-Tegel.
Two aircraft out of the fifteen based at Berlin-Tegel will be pulled, a mixture of service reductions and cancellations.
Here’s what’s known so far:
Services withdrawn from Berlin-Tegel
- Manchester
- Amsterdam
- Budapest
- Lyon
Services facing major reduction (50% cut)
- Geneva
- Milan
- Stockholm
Services with other reductions (30%~40%):
- Bucharest
- Helsinki
- Moscow Vnukovo
- Paris CDG
German Domestic Services will cut to with reductions on routes to:
- Cologne
- Düsseldorf
- Stuttgart
(Data: Business Traveller and The Local as Lufthansa has failed to post anything in their travel news section)
The cuts take effect from 31st March 2013. Reroutes are being offered where possible, with a change of plane in most cases.
The reasons for the cuts are multiple. Some routes simply have not performed, some have suffered yield problems (the classic “too many people buying cheap fares and not enough buying expensive fares”). Of course, one of the main given was the repeated delays to the planned opening of the new Berlin-Brandenburg airport.
Which sums up the Berlin Brandenburg Airport project in a nutshell. Delayed and not suitable for purpose.
If Lufthansa is suffering just with 15 planes based at Tegel, the corridors of power at Air Berlin must be just as dark…
For what it’s worth, it’s spelled “Tegel” not “Tegal”
Thanks – was in a rush to get out of the office today…
My guess it that this also has to do with handing over some routes to Germanwings, as they are supposed to take all of the Lufthansa direct flights except flight to/from Lufthansa hubs (i.e. Frankfurt and Munich).