Air Berlin adds new U.S. routes from Berlin, Dusseldorf

Air Berlin will increase its U.S. footprint with several new routes and additional flights on those it already flies.

The carrier says it will increase its U.S. flight offerings by 50%, going from 55 weekly flights to the U.S. now to 78 by next summer. The expansion will bring several new U.S. routes to Air Berlin's German hubs of Berlin and Dusseldorf.

Orlando will be a new destination, with five weekly flights to Dusseldorf beginning May 6. Air Berlin already flies to the Florida cities of Miami and Fort Myers.

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“Orlando is a valuable addition to our existing strong Florida-portfolio because the city is a major convention destination, which bears a high potential in the business travel segment,” Air Berlin CEO Stefan Pichler says in a statement.

To the west, Air Berlin will launch nonstop service from Berlin to both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Three weekly LAX flights begin May 2 while four weekly San Francisco flights start May 1. The Berlin-LAX restores a route that Air Berlin dropped in October 2013, according to the Airline Route blog.

Elsewhere, Air Berlin will increase its schedule on several routes it already flies.

From Berlin, the carrier’s New York JFK service will increase to 10 weekly flights from 7. Miami service will go from seasonal to year-round.

From Dusseldorf, Boston service will become daily in the spring, up from the current schedule of four weekly flights. San Francisco also will increase to daily service, up from five weekly flights.

“The further expansion of our U.S. operations as of summer 2017 shows that we are determined to continue on our path to position Air Berlin as a premium network carrier with a strong U.S. footprint and an excellent proposition even for the most discerning business traveler,” Pichler says.

Air Berlin says it will receive three additional Airbus A330-200 to operate the expanded U.S. schedule. The aircraft will include 19 full-flat business-class seats, 46 extra-legroom “XL” premium economy seats and 225 standard coach seats.

With the expanded schedule, Air Berlin will fly nonstop from Germany to eight U.S. destinations: Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Fort Myers, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Orlando and San Francisco.

Air Berlin also announced a big U.S. expansion this past November, when it said it would begin flying from Dusseldorf to Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Francisco. However, the Dallas route never got off the ground, canceled before its first flight because of poor sales, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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