Transatlantic airline startup Norse Atlantic launched service this summer, initially operating transatlantic flights out of Oslo (OSL), followed by London (LGW). Then in June the airline announced plans to launch transatlantic flights out of Berlin (BER) — while two such routes are launching this week, a third has just been announced.
In this post:
Norse Atlantic will fly from Berlin to New York, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale
Norse Atlantic has made Berlin (BER) its third European gateway city:
- As of August 17, 2022, Norse Atlantic is flying daily between Berlin (BER) and New York (JFK)
- As of August 19, 2022, Norse Atlantic will fly 3x weekly between Berlin (BER) and Los Angeles (LAX)
- As of December 7, 2022, Norse Atlantic will fly 3x weekly between Berlin (BER) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
The 3,982-mile Berlin to New York flight is operating with the following schedule:
N0601 Berlin to New York departing 7:20PM arriving 10:00PM
N0602 New York to Berlin departing 12:30AM arriving 2:25PM
Meanwhile the 5,820-mile Berlin to Los Angeles flight will operate with a different schedule on each of the three weekly services. We’re not just talking minor variations, but rather the Berlin to Los Angeles flight departs at either 8:50AM, 1:20PM, or 5:50PM, while the Los Angeles to Berlin flight departs at either 10:40AM, 3:10PM, or 7:40PM.
Lastly, the 4,967-mile flight from Berlin to Fort Lauderdale will operate with the following schedule:
N0621 Berlin to Fort Lauderdale departing 4:25PM arriving 9:00PM
N0622 Fort Lauderdale to Berlin departing 11:00PM arriving 2:40PM (+1 day)
These flights will be operated by Boeing 787-9s featuring both premium economy and economy. As you’d expect, base fares are really low, though expect to pay for everything, from carry-ons to seat assignments.
As of now flights in all three markets are on sale through through late March 2023. I would imagine they have good odds of being extended into next summer, but we’ll see. It’s normal for airlines to only add inventory for one season at a time.
Berlin finally gets more transatlantic service!
Berlin is by far Germany’s most populous city, but despite that, there has been a lack of consistent transatlantic service to the airport. United resumed its Berlin (BER) to Newark (EWR) flight this summer, which up until this week was the only transatlantic link out of the airport. While the route is scheduled to be year-round for the time being, let’s see if that lasts, since historically United has sometimes only operated the route seasonally.
Why has Berlin been so unable to maintain consistent transatlantic links? Ultimately there are a variety of factors that have contributed to this:
- The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport finally opened in late 2020, nearly a decade behind schedule; the old airport wasn’t really equipped for major expansion
- Unfortunately airberlin liquidated in late 2017, and that’s the airline that operated some long haul routes out of Berlin
- While Berlin is the biggest city in Germany, Frankfurt and Munich are the business hubs, and also the hubs that Lufthansa has been focused on
- That means Berlin is largely left with leisure demand (which isn’t going to consistently be lucrative, especially for full service airlines) and government traffic (which is likely to fly with Lufthansa)
Fortunately things are really looking up for Berlin at this point when it comes to transatlantic flights:
- Delta is launching a New York to Berlin route as of May 2023; the route will be operated daily during the summer season with a Boeing 767
- United is launching a Washington to Berlin route; the route will be operated daily during the summer season with a Boeing 767
Berlin is a great city, so it’s exciting to see this growth. Hopefully this transatlantic service can be sustained.
Bottom line
Norse Atlantic now has plans to fly from Berlin to three destinations in the United States, including New York, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale. For the time being these routes are on sale through late March 2022, so hopefully they also get extended into next summer.
It’s exciting to see a transatlantic ultra low cost carrier not just trying to replicate the route networks of other airlines, but rather opening up new markets. In the meantime it looks like legacy carriers are putting more of a focus on Berlin as well, with both Delta and United launching new routes as of next summer.
What do you make of Norse Atlantic adding three Berlin routes?
Exactly pstm91. LH ignoring BER will cost them in the long run. I'm glad that United is adding a Washington flight (in addition to the flight to Newark) to connect it's other major east coast hub but really wish they would add a SFO flight to connect the west coast (a lot of technology companies in Berlin should make that a natural fit). United should also test a BER-DEN route. This may even make more sense than IAD.
As long as they don’t have a decent business class I will not fly them, even if they offer twice daily service to Bismarck ND.
Berlin is indeed a very underserved city from the USA. I truly believe that there's demand for nonstops from major US markets to Berlin. It's not only the capital, but a business center in it's own right - and a far more interesting place to visit than Frankfurt (basically a business destination). LH's reluctance to expand Berlin service does leave an untapped growth market now that Berlin has the needed airport facilities. That said, Norse...
Berlin is indeed a very underserved city from the USA. I truly believe that there's demand for nonstops from major US markets to Berlin. It's not only the capital, but a business center in it's own right - and a far more interesting place to visit than Frankfurt (basically a business destination). LH's reluctance to expand Berlin service does leave an untapped growth market now that Berlin has the needed airport facilities. That said, Norse Atlantic's sketchy scheduling doesn't look like the best way to handle this route. 3 different schedules on 3 different days to LAX? Doesn't make sense.
LH isn't avoiding Berlin just to be mean... you don't think that if they saw a chance for lucrative/sustained growth, they'd jump at it?
It's not like they're above giving it a go: look at their attempt to build at DUS over the last decade.
I'm not giving these routes much chance of success. US-BER nonstop service generally does not work except for UA. There is going to be more than enough capacity on NY-Berlin in high season when Norse comes in daily, with DL and UA also in the market. LAX-BER is absurd. FLL may get some beach market traffic but that's about it.
I don´t think it is absurd at all. A good friend is from L.A. and lives in Berlin. She wanted to fly on Norse back to the US in November and couldn´t find any availability, so she reluctantly booked LX at a much higher price. Berlin has more and more international companies, is a major convention spot and also is the no. 3 tourist destination city in Europe. Lufthansa originally was found in Berlin, but...
I don´t think it is absurd at all. A good friend is from L.A. and lives in Berlin. She wanted to fly on Norse back to the US in November and couldn´t find any availability, so she reluctantly booked LX at a much higher price. Berlin has more and more international companies, is a major convention spot and also is the no. 3 tourist destination city in Europe. Lufthansa originally was found in Berlin, but the war as well as the division of Germany made Frankfurt and later Munich airports big. Hamburg and Berlin are important feeder markets for LH and if Berliners and Brandenburger (plus passengers from West-Poland) have the chance to fly direct to the US LH will feel it. In the next ten years the main business market in Germany will be Berlin, as Bavaria and Southern Germany will suffer from the decline of the gasoline motor car industry and its suppliers, which contribute a good 1/3 of their economy. Berlin on the other hand has Tesla, Intel will be in Magdeburg, Amazon is growing its campus in Berlin and Siemens is investing quite a bit, too. Together with all the growing start-ups and the medical companies/convention business/tourism a lot of new potential for air traffic will be generated in Berlin.
The late departures from Berlin to NYC and FLL and varied departures are very possibility due to a availability of slots at JFK and terminal access at JFK and FLL and LAX.
Either way, there isn't a whole lot of slack in the US airport system and other airlines have already published schedules to use facilities and slots at the best times, making it much more difficult for a startup to come in.
'Delta is launching a New York to Berlin route as of May 2023; the route will be operated daily during the summer season with a Boeing 787' - I think you meant 767
@ AnishReddi -- Fixed, thanks!!
As others have stated, I welcome the transatlantic flights directly into BER. But departure times are a bit off for most travelers.
Love the idea! But the late arrival times make the service almost unusable. Too bad!!
flew out of Berlin Brandenburg last summer. sucks and not worth the hype and def not worth the long delayed opening. Berlin was a great city though
I tried to include Berlin in my recent Europe journey but most of the flights were on Ryanair or Easyjet and everything on LH was via Frankfurt. When Germany's own airline makes it inconvenient and expensive to get to their capital city, that say's something. So I hope this is a winning route for Norse and that they expand the service to other U.S. cities.
What exactly was the issue? All LH flights start/end out of Frankfurt or Munich. LH transferred all of their non-hub pair flights to Eurowings. DB train service is also really good if you are coming from Hamburg or Prague.
Easyjet is a decent flying experience as well.
I've just flown a R/T to BER from EWR with United.
I gotta say that the lack of more international flights makes the lines at immigration pretty much non-existent. The time my flight arrived at BER there was only a Scoot flight coming in from Singapore.
In terms of lounge, FRA and MUC are way better. The Lufthansa business lounge at BER was very crowded inside and with a huge line at the...
I've just flown a R/T to BER from EWR with United.
I gotta say that the lack of more international flights makes the lines at immigration pretty much non-existent. The time my flight arrived at BER there was only a Scoot flight coming in from Singapore.
In terms of lounge, FRA and MUC are way better. The Lufthansa business lounge at BER was very crowded inside and with a huge line at the entrance, very Skyclubesque. This was because the agents at the gate were manning all the cancelled LH flights...
What's up with the weird timing on the west-bound? Who wants to get to their hotel in NYC at midnight thirty?
Has Berlin even had a west coast nonstop before this? Hard pressed to think of one!
Or even one west of the Mississippi.
Meh, I guess Air Berlin into LAX. Easy to forget, since for most of its time here, they served Dusseldorf with their nonstop, not Berline.
TXL had an SFO and a LAX flight before. Took both
Picking up what Air Berlin was serving.
Despite its dated appearance Tegel was an excellent airport for passengers and very close to Berlin. The new airport is much further from Berlin itself as hinted by the more accurate name Brandenburg Airport. This means taxi to Berlin can be very expensive, was happy using the S-bahn once but in recent years have felt very uncomfortable with the amount of beggars and questionable characters now on urban german public transport.
I stopped using Ryanair...
Despite its dated appearance Tegel was an excellent airport for passengers and very close to Berlin. The new airport is much further from Berlin itself as hinted by the more accurate name Brandenburg Airport. This means taxi to Berlin can be very expensive, was happy using the S-bahn once but in recent years have felt very uncomfortable with the amount of beggars and questionable characters now on urban german public transport.
I stopped using Ryanair as I much preferred Tegel to Schonfield. Now I just avoid Berlin when I can and get the train in to the HBF as it is an excellent location right in the city, and lots of police there make it feel safer.
I LOVED TEGEL! It was about a 10 minute cab ride to my apartment! BER is so far out, I stay at an airport hotel to get the early flights out.....an added expense.
Happy to see Norse try to expand the network Norwegian-style, just hoping it's not too much too soon. Don't want them to repeat Norwegian's mistakes.
Berlin airport is a pain. Security lines are long and not efficient, passport control can take forever and it will just get worse during the summer peak travel season.
More flights will just make it worse and until BER doesn't fix those issues it is an airport I would avoid
Sounds like the airport already gives you the authentic, dysfunctional 'Berlin experience'.
No clue how often you have used BER. I live here and been there probably 40 times since it opened. Way more efficient than FRA or MUC. Never waited longer than 15 min at security. Passport control for EU citizens is done by E-gates which are quick and efficient as well. And no it didn´t get worse during the summer peak.
One of the other big reasons Berlin doesn't have sufficient service is historical. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, Lufthansa wasn't permitted to fly there at all IIRC - I think only American, French, and British carriers could fly to West Berlin, and they weren't going to establish a hub there. So the hubs were built in FRA and MUC instead, and were too entrenched by the time Berlin opened up.
While I do understand that and appreciate the history, we are talking about 33 years to build a new hub, in your own capital and main city, no less. I don't really buy the reasoning that they had hubs in FRA and MUC so they just looked past BER - look at how many hubs the various US carriers have spread across the US.
Fares look good from the random sample I looked at (8/18-25) NYC - BER. With a carry on Norse is charging $465, United direct for $1012, Lufthansa with layover $625.
This airline does not come up on search engines which makes it hard for customers to know about their flights.
Lucky, I have barley seen you post at all about breeze airways, almost 20 airplanes strong already.
And what do you recommend for the spirit merger lucky?
Since Breeze itself doesn't advertise worth a damn, it's hard to blame others for not doing their work for them.