airberlin responds to ground handling problems in Berlin

The continued ground handling problems at Berlin-Tegel Airport have prompted airberlin to make changes to the planned expansion of the USA connections from May 2017. The start date for the Berlin-Tegel – San Francisco routes will be postponed from 1 May to 29 May 2017. The new nonstop route from Berlin to Los Angeles will be moved back from 2 May 2017 to 16 May 2017.

“I have decided to postpone the starting dates of the new long-haul routes due to the current difficulties in Berlin-Tegel. Our new service provider AeroGround can use the extra time to improve their performance so that we can again offer a good and stable product to our passengers and especially to our transfer passengers. We regret the current inconvenience for our guests”, says airberlin CEO Thomas Winkelmann.

Affected passengers will be contacted immediately by airberlin and will be rebooked on other flights via Düsseldorf free of charge. Passengers whose flights are part of a package deal please contact their tour operator or travel agent.

airberlin will operate a twice-weekly service from Berlin to Los Angeles from the middle of May. A third weekly frequency will be added in June. The flights to Los Angeles will proceed as planned from the end of May with four frequencies per week. The new airberlin long-haul route from Dusseldorf to Orlando will start as planned on 6 May 2017.

With the beginning of the summer schedule airberlin had changed the service provider in Berlin. Since 26 March 2017 AeroGround, a wholly owned subsidiary of Flughafen München GmbH, is responsible for ground handling services.