Air Berlin will move its London flights to Nuremberg and Hanover from Stansted to Gatwick airport early next year.
The carrier currently offers direct flights from London Stansted to Dusseldorf, Hanover, Munster, Nuremberg and Paderborn (also served from Manchester), but from February 7 next year the routes to Hanover and Nuremberg will be switched to Gatwick.
The number of flights offered to the cities will not change, with twice daily flights to Hanover (once daily on Saturday), and twice daily weekday flights to Nuremberg (plus a Sunday service).
Air Berlin’s forthcoming integration into the Oneworld alliance may well have influenced the carrier’s decision to base some of its flights at Gatwick. The carrier will be based at the North Terminal, also used by founding Oneworld member British Airways, so it will likely be able to make use of BA's ground handling systems at the terminal.
The recent change of ownership at Gatwick (see online news October 21, 2009) is also likely to have been a factor, with the airport aiming to increase passenger numbers by 20 per cent by 2018. Gatwick says that the Air Berlin services are expected to increase passenger volumes at the airport by 365,000 next year.
Air Berlin’s service to Nuremberg are the only UK flights to the Bavarian city, while Germanwings offers flights to Hanover from Stansted, and Bmi Regional from Heathrow.
For more information visit airberlin.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
