Following news this summer of a further 2.2 billion Euros funding being made available for Berlin Brandenburg Airport’s new terminal’s construction, Germany’s airports are largely optimistic for the future. Here's the view of Ulrich Topp, director aviation marketing, Düsseldorf Airport.
Q) Where are your key opportunities for route development?
We want to further develop as airberlin’s Americas hub operation which started this year with flights to San Francisco, Boston and Havana while flights to Orlando start in summer 2017. We are looking to increase frequencies on these routes as well as strengthen the feeder network for airberlin and corresponding partner airlines.
Q) How much is your airport focusing on new routes in Asia?
Asia is a success story for Düsseldorf and since 2011 we have introduced new routes to Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore. This has been complemented by Emirates upgrading to a double daily operation to Dubai; a daily Etihad Airways Boeing 787-9 service to Abu Dhabi and a daily airberlin Airbus A330 service to the same destination. We now want to develop existing routes with increased frequencies or bigger aircraft with more capacity. Also on our wish list are non-stop services to India, Thailand and Shanghai, although Chinese carriers are suffering from traffic rights limitations.
Q) What do you think are the key issues facing the German aviation market?
Eurowings is phasing out all Bombardier CRJ900s in favor of Airbus A319/A320, the future role of Ryanair and the future development of airberlin are all of interest. I am also keeping an eye on how the Lufthansa Group and the airberlin Group will deal with increased pressure from LCCs, Gulf carriers and Turkish Airlines.
Q) If Brexit ever happens, what impact do you expect it to have on European aviation?
A) Out of all German airports, Düsseldorf has the most non-stop destinations to the UK due to the strong economic ties between our region and the UK. It will be interesting to see, how and if this route network will change once it is executed. What will happen to the pan-European LCC easyJet and its UK-registered fleet? Will we see an easyJet France, Germany or Italy as we see already an easyJet Switzerland? And will it prompt Ryanair to shift capacity from UK markets to continental Europe?
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This article is modified from an original feature that appeared in... ROUTES NEWS - ISSUE 6, 2016 PLEASE CLICK HERE to view the magazine. |
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