Christmas came early this year, no overnights in Frankfurt any more to get to my EK-flights. Big win for travelers from Berlin and the surrounding cities.
Lufthansa Furious, of Course! 🙂
One of the most corrupt companies in Germany and for sure THE biggest scam of all German Aviation Companies is now jelling at the German Government, just about 9 years ago, this same company did ANYTHINg in it's power in oder to convince the Government, that the biggest competitor of Lufthansa in Germany, an airline called airberlin and with the biggest hub in the German capitol (with ties to the UAE) had to disappear from the market.
The government did not much to get rid of over 8000 employees, just simply to get most of them for much cheaper money to work and get the newly built Lufthansa-Group airlines. Discover, Eurowings, Eurowings Europe . . . and of course this now so bad Government is NOT playing after the dictatorship of Lufthansa-Group anymore when it comes to investment by the UAE in the German market.
Berlin simply is NOT made for Lufthansa and will never be a Lufthansa market!
The Airline simply never granted the market there and i hope all Berlin people will know that too, now that they have a GOOD choice of air travel again or better, one more option rather then the Lufthansa-Group!
They ruined Berlin's ever biggest airline and sucked it's resources dry like a spider and i hope Emirates EK will teach that corrupt airline a lesson?
This decision with EK was long overdue!
Competition banned for years, just because Lufthansa thought they had any rights. As always, those who laugh last, laugh the loudest.
Good Luck EK!
STR next! 😉
"Lufthansa wants to have its cake and eat it too — it wants to control Berlin without actually investing in the market"
VERY TRUE!!!
. . . and it will never change, but instead, this German airline does anything possible to keep competitors far away from Berlin. BUT V E R Y quiet if their STAR partners AC, UA fly to that city! (another proof what a foul game LH-Group is playing at all times)
Of course they don't mind their *A partners because they have a TATL JV which fills their coffers regardless of carrier. EK is a very different story.
Always glad to see more connection to BER. I wish, for oneworld connectivity, that Air Berlin would be resurrected.
EK has been eyeing markets that lack transatlantic service, where it knows it can grab a ton of passengers. It probably requested 5th freedom rights as part of the deal.
LH would have been made aware of this, and this was probably part of the pushback, in writing, it must state no 5th freedom.
That can be another battle.
LH has treated Berlin like the slaggy ex-stepsister. That is now over.
Honestly I don't know why Lufthansa is whining because it does not even fly any long haul routes from Berlin. They are more than welcome to start a Berlin to Dubai flight if they want to. Plus they have already had competitions from Qatar (which is always full) and Turkish Airlines.
Now I hope it is an incentive for Berlin Airport to get some better lounges or maybe it is enough incentive for another lounge operator to build a larger and a nicer lounge with better food.
But Qatar Airways has three daily slots to BER. Why is Emirates limited to just one daily flight?
This is history repeating itself. When Alitalia abandoned Milan, Emirates stepped into the vacuum with flights to New York, and now they're eyeing South America from MXP to bypass Rome entirely.
Despite all the arguments in favor of the new agreement, the fact that Gulf carriers are heavily subsidized also remains true, and it gives them a huge competitive advantage over European airlines. After all, the UAE government bought their way into this agreement.
Nonetheless, the way LH handeled this was shortsighted all along, as this has been looming far too long.