Press­ Release

Summer travel 2021: Flight offer picks up significantly

With the beginning of the summer holidays, air traffic in the capital region will increase noticeably. Numerous airlines are resuming their flight operations or are gradually expanding their services.

While traffic volumes remained at a low level in winter and spring 2021, a slight recovery has been evident since May. In May, over 360,000 passengers flew to, from and via BER. That is almost 2.5 times as many passengers as in February 2021. Currently, 45 airlines fly to 90 destinations in 40 countries.

A further increase is expected from mid-June to mid-July. Once the holidays start, the number of visitors will then regularly be between 20,000 and 30,000 passengers daily and will continue to rise in the weeks thereafter. Especially on the classic holiday travel days Friday and Sunday, passenger volumes increase significantly to up to 50,000 passengers a day. Further growth in passenger numbers and expansion of capacities on the part of the airlines is expected in August. In total, this means that around 50 percent of the traffic volume from 2019 will probably be achieved in the two summer months. This also means roughly a doubling of the figures compared to 2020, when around 1.5 million passengers were handled in Schoenefeld and Tegel in the months of July and August.

The positive trend can also be seen in the number of flights. In July and August, around 70 airlines will fly to around 160 destinations in 50 countries. This almost matches the level of the 2019 summer flight schedule, when 86 airlines flew to 183 destinations in 57 countries. There are differences in the frequency of the connections offered. Popular holiday destinations in Europe in particular benefit from the opening and relaxation of travel restrictions.

With Spain, Turkey, Greece and Italy, the focus is particularly on travel destinations in the Mediterranean region. Spain achieves around 50 percent of arrivals and departures in July compared to 2019, Turkey achieves 80 percent and Greece is likely to exceed the number of arrivals and departures in July this year compared to the same period in 2019. Up to 18 departures to Greece are expected on peak days. Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Antalya (Turkey) and Heraklion (Greece) top the ranking of the most popular travel destinations from BER outside Germany based on the number of bookings. On peak days, up to 1,500 tourists will take off for these destinations from BER. Flights to Great Britain, Moscow in Russia and Hurghada in Egypt are also well booked.

Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH:

"Falling rates of infection, the progress of the corona vaccinations combined with easements in travel are causing air traffic to grow again. More and more people are now fulfilling their holiday dreams. The booking figures for the airlines are increasing, airlines are returning or significantly expanding their services from BER. Even though we are still a long way from the pre-pandemic figures, we are looking forward to the first summer of travel from BER and wish all passengers a good flight."

The airlines easyJet, Ryanair and Eurowings are significantly expanding their presence at BER once more and are offering an extensive mix of popular European cities and, above all, holiday destinations. At the same time, they are significantly increasing the number of aircraft used at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport.

• Sun destinations in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria as well as the island of Sylt once again appear with greater frequency in easyJet's flight schedule. The airline is focusing on both popular and new destinations. It is planning connections to Valencia and Ibiza in Spain, Lamezia Terme in Italy, the Greek islands of Crete, Mykonos and Santorini and Burgas in Bulgaria. But the pan-European airline is also increasing the frequency of numerous other destinations within Europe. This year, easyJet will supply up to 18 aircraft to meet summer air traffic demand at BER.
• Ryanair offers a wide range of popular holiday destinations across southern Europe, including many destinations in Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal. In addition to the holiday destinations, the airline is also flying to many European capitals again. The Irish low-cost airline will operate from Berlin Brandenburg Airport with up to eight aircraft and offer up to 35 daily flights, with the prospect of further expansion in the course of the summer bringing it close to pre-crisis levels.
• In addition to the domestic German flight offer, Eurowings is increasing the number of flights to Palma de Mallorca and the Greek islands. Palma will then be served up to three times a day, and Heraklion on Crete six times a week. The addition of Croatia (Dubrovnik, Rijeka and Split) as well as Bastia on Corsica and Salzburg in Austria means further holiday destinations will become available at the beginning of the season. The airline will be operating three aircraft from BER this summer.
• The Lufthansa Group is increasing the frequency of daily flights to Frankfurt and Munich by up to nine and six flights a day respectively.
• SunExpress is also taking to the skies more frequently. With the start of the summer holidays, the airline will fly to Turkey up to five times a day instead of up to twice a day, including to Antalya, Izmir and Dalaman.
• Turkish Airlines is flying five to eight times a day to Istanbul, Ankara and other destinations in Turkey this July and August.

Two airlines will start flying to Berlin Brandenburg Airport for the first time.

• From July 2, the Icelandic airline Play plans to connect BER with the Icelandic capital Reykjavík four times a week.
  
• The South Tyrolean regional airline Sky Alps is planning flights twice a week from BER to Bolzano in Italy from 30 June.

The following airlines are planning to resume air traffic from Berlin Brandenburg Airport:

• Air Cairo with up to two flights per week to Hurghada, Egypt (from 19 June 2021)
• Air Dolomiti with up to two flights per week to Verona, Italy (from 19 June 2021)
• Air Lingus with up to three flights per week to Dublin, Ireland (from 2 July 2021)
• Air Malta with up to two flights per week to Malta (from 28 June 2021)
• BA City Flyer with one flight per week to Southampton, Great Britain (from 16 July 2021)
• Icelandair with up to four flights per week to Reykjavík, Iceland (from 5 June 2021)
• Croatia Airlines with one flight per week to Split, Croatia (from 19 June 2021)
• DAT Airlines with two flights per week to the Danish Island of Bornholm (from 19 August 2021)
• Israir with up to three flights per week to Tel Aviv, Israel (from 24 June 2021)
• LOT Airlines with up to eight flights per week to Warsaw, Poland (from 18 June 2021)
• Norwegian Air Shuttle with up to five flights per week to Oslo, Norway, up to two flights per week to Stockholm, Sweden, and up to four flights per week to Copenhagen, Denmark (from 18 and 28 June 2021)
• Nouvelair Tunis with one flight per week to Monastir and now to Tunis, Tunisia (from 22 June 2021)
• Royal Jordanian with up to two flights per week to Amman, Jordan (from 24 June 2021)
• Transavia Airlines with one flight per week to Montpellier, France (from 10 July 2021)

Passenger notification

Due to the ongoing global infection rate, there may be changes in the destination countries and thus in the flight schedule of the respective airlines. However, many airlines have responded to this and offer flexible rebooking options. However, passengers are encouraged to enquire about the travel conditions in the destination country and the current flight status with their airline before flights.