Berlin Airport Company Plans to Increase Transit Volume

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   On 7th of February at the meeting with Russian tour operating companies Berlin Airport company announced its transit capacity – company’s representative, Torsten Uling, pointed out that in 2005 three Berlin airports welcomed 17,2 million passengers (including 800,000 Russian tourists), 3% of them used Berlin airports for transit flights. Therefore, Berlin Airport plans to increase its passenger capacity mainly by means of low-cost flights. According to the current data, 13 low-cost airlines realize 2400 flights per week to 50 countries of the world. Tickets for such flights cost from 19Euro, but some companies sell tickets at 1 Euro.
    Travel market experts point out that in spite of transit capacity of Berlin Airports the majority of transit flights from Russia fly through Frankfurt. In particular, Sergey Rodionov, the Head of European Department of Kvinta-tour, said: ‘Transit flights to South-East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe are mostly go through Frankfurt at present, besides national German airline flies to the Frankfurt Airport’. Tour operators focus on the inconveniency of work with low-cost airlines. Firstly, their offers are not presented within international booking systems. Those that are presented do not suggest agency commission. Secondly, low-cost airlines tend to cancel flights in case of low flight load. However, Klaus-Martin Enders, a representative of a low-cost airline, Germanwings, flying from Moscow to Berlin, said to a BANKO correspondent that the company make all scheduled flights.
    On the other hand, tour operators see the advantages of low-cost flights for tourists: ‘such flights within Europe are convenient for group excursion tours. For example, tourists may have a combined tour – first they go to see the historical sites of Berlin and than move to sunbathe at Spanish beach’, said Nadejda Prokina, Director Deputy of DSBW.