Aegean Airlines Closes Berlin Link

Star Alliance member Aegean Airlines is to suspend its route between Athens and Berlin Tegel this month just two and a half years after it launched services between the two European capitals. The carrier began serving the route in May 2009 and had previously offered an up to daily operation during summer 2010.

It currently provides four weekly rotations on the route but will close it from January 9, 2012. An estimated 71,000 O&D passengers travelled between Athens and Berlin Tegel in the past year; 86,000 more travelled between the Greek capital and Berlin Schoenefeld on the flights of low-cost carrier easyJet.

The Aegean Airlines service was flown in a codeshare with its fellow Star Alliance member Lufthansa and the German national carrier has announced plans to expand its own presence in the German capital following the opening of the new Willy Brandt Berlin Brandenburg Airport in June, although Athens was not among the destinations it currently plans to operate.