Long-haul flights from Berlin: Lufthansa forces customers to change trains

Deutsche Lufthansa, the leading German aeronautical group, has very special relations with the German capital. After all, it was founded 92 years ago in Berlin. The rest is history: After the war, the company was not allowed to rebuild itself in the city before. Today, group leaders are sitting in Cologne. Over the past two decades, Air Berlin has become the local market leader in Tegel, until the country's second largest airline was shut down almost a year ago. Since then, Lufthansa has failed to conquer the capital. And some ask themselves the question: will they even do that?

Long-haul flights are not worth it, says Lufthansa

The company regularly sends its newsletter "Politikbrief" by e-mail. Recipients are all interested parties, but especially MEPs who make the decision to regulate the industry in Berlin. In one of the latest issues of the "Politikbriefs", Lufthansa recalled that long-haul flights from Berlin are not profitable. At the same time, due to price increases after the group gescholtene of bankruptcy of Air Berlin on ticket costs generally decreased in the domestic traffic.

With a change, you also arrive at the destination

Berlin has no hub function the reason for being inefficient non-stop long-distance service was the remuneration of business travelers. As an alternative, last year, approximately 870,000 Berlin pbadengers traveled to their long – haul destination with a one – time change, including nearly one in four pbadengers (27%) with airlines of the Lufthansa Group, including Eurowings, Swiss and Austrian. According to figures, Berliners are only second on Air France / KLM (17%) and Turkish Airlines (11%).

Even Emirates and Etihad golf companies cite Lufthansa as an example on Berlin's long-haul routes. The two could eventually serve four destinations in Germany and would have opted for other cities. An argument that lags behind: Etihad has already used the partnership with Air Berlin, which started from Tegel and Düsseldorf in Abu Dhabi and for which Lufthansa now operates in Frankfurt and Munich as a manger. And Emirates has been looking for additional landing rights for years. "Emirates continues to be convinced that Berlin and Stuttgart have great potential for profitable intercontinental markets," says a spokesman for the Dubai-based airline.

Delta, United and others are satisfied with their connections to Berlin

Airlines like Delta and United (New York), Air Canada Red (Toronto) and Hainan (Beijing) are more than happy with their long-haul flights to Berlin. Qatar Airways is using bigger and bigger planes on the Tegel route at its hub in Doha, now the Boeing 777 with 358 seats. The last player is Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, which Tegel has linked to Singapore since the end of June. "We are looking at the white spots in the road network," says their boss Lee Lik Hsin. "No one has flown from Berlin to Southeast Asia, but the market is there." Lufthansa spokesman Andreas Bartels says foreign airlines are doing better with their long-haul flights from Berlin. In contrast, the hubs of the group are in Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Zurich

There is competition in Germany, says Lufthansa

Meanwhile, the capacity gap in German domestic air traffic caused by the loss of Air Berlin is more due to Eurowings and Easyjet was closed, he told Lufthansa. At the same time, ticket prices will fall. According to the Federal Office of Statistics, in December, they had a maximum value of 7.4% above the starting level set in 2010 and were 4.2% lower than this benchmark since April. "Theft is as cheap as it has ever been," says Bartels

Wizzair, Europe's cheapest supplier

According to the report on the Center's budget German Aerospace (DLR), there are only 837 European routes in the low-cost, ever-growing competition segment. Nevertheless, the average price of the tickets of individual carriers at low prices from the past winter time has only increased from eleven to twelve euros. The cheapest supplier was therefore the Hungarian Wizzair (44 euros), while Easyjet (67 euros) Ryanair (79 euros) was revised. The taillight was Lufthansa Eurowings with 117 euros.