The low-cost airline has launched its first domestic flights in Germany from its new base at Berlin's Tegel Airport. The British carrier has added 19 new routes and joins an already crowded domestic market in Germany.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
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Low-cost carrier Easyjet commenced its new domestic German service shortly after 10.30 CET on Friday morning from Berlin's Tegel airport, as it seeks to capitalize on Air Berlin's demise.
Easyjet will add 19 destinations to its schedules from Tegel, with four of those within Germany — Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich and Düsseldorf — and said it aims to fly 40 times a week between Tegel and Düsseldorf.
The airline's increased focus on the German market comes after the Air Berlin deal and puts Easyjet in direct competition with Lufthansa and its subsidiary Eurowings, which have been criticized in recent months for inflating its fares amid claims of antitrust.
Budget airlines take off in Europe
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During the period of Air Berlin's insolvency, the price of some domestic fares have risen by 30 percent.
Berlin base
Easyjet currently has 12 planes stationed at Tegel but plans to increase that figure to 25 within the next six months with aircraft purchased from Air Berlin, making it Easyjet's second largest base after London Gatwick, where the company has 37 aircraft.
Easyjet, which plans to use its partner airlines for some of its Tegel flights in the initial phase of the new operation, is increasingly targeting business travellers by offering routes to Zurich, Vienna, Copenhagen and Stockholm.
Record passenger levels
The news of Easyjet's expansion in Germany comes on the same day the company announced a record number of passengers for 2017.
Easyjet carried 81.6 million passengers last year, up 9.6 percent from 2016, but still trails Irish rival Ryanair, which carried a record-high 129 million passengers last year.
However, Easyjet's annual net profits slumped by almost 33 percent as a result of increased competition and a Brexit-fuelled drop in the pound.
Easyjet applied for a new air operator's license in Austria in July 2017 in preparation for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and the associated Single European Sky system, in March 2019.
Germans take to the sky like never before
Germans are major frequent fliers. In the first half of this year more than 55 million people departed from German airports, most of them going to international destinations. This despite many problems in the industry.
Image: Reuters/AAP/D. England
Big planes or really big double-decker planes
Germans are known as fearless globetrotters and the statistics prove it: the total number of airline passengers was up 6 percent to 55.2 million in the first half of this year compared with 2016. Of those travelers, 43 million flew to international destinations, while around 12 million stayed within Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Decisions, decisions at the check-in kiosks
Within Europe the foreign destinations with the biggest growth were sunny places in the south. Travel to Cyprus increased by 78 percent, Greece by 20 percent and Portugal by nearly 16 percent. The biggest loser was Turkey. Though Germany has a large Turkish population, trips there were down by 9 percent.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Private plane with the registration 16+01
Not everyone has to wait in those pesky lines or take off their shoes and belt for security clearance. Here German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves her 143 seat plane, the Konrad Adenauer. But don't be too jealous, the plane had been used by Lufthansa for 10 years before being picked up and refurbished in 2009.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R.Jensen
Plain interior with legroom for everyone
Despite the fact that many people complain that seats and legroom are shrinking, there is hardly any other practical option to flying, especially to far away places. So far this year the number of people flying to Africa from Germany was up 28 percent, while the number of those going to the US was up nearly 7 percent.
Image: picture-alliance/Daniel Kalker
Gourmet bamboo now on the inflight menu
Not everyone is just flying out of Germany. In June, to great fanfare two giant pandas - Meng Meng and Jiao Qing - were flown to Berlin on a special chartered plane from China. The pair is on loan to the Berlin Zoo for 15 years. Yet at this point no one knows if the cuddly couple has already booked a return flight.
Image: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS/Xinhua
Not as orderly as it may seem from the outside
Despite the growing number of passengers this year, German airlines have received a lot of criticism. In July, the European Court of Justice ruled that companies could not levy additional fees if passengers cancel flights. And in August, government officials demanded that the country's air passenger duty be scrapped.
Image: Reuters/M. Dalder
After a while they all start to look alike
Once you reach your destination there is no guarantee that your luggage will be there. Passengers of Air Berlin know this problem better than most and it's one of the reasons why Germany's second-biggest airline recently declared bankruptcy. At this point it is still unclear if the company will be taken over or split up.
