Berlin Brandenburg Airport has welcomed its second new carrier in as many months with the arrival of Air France-KLM’s low-cost carrier, Transavia. On Saturday, the airline launched its new route between the German capital city and Montpellier in the south of France. The route will operate every week.
After years of delays and becoming known as somewhat of a white elephant, Berlin Brandenburg Airport finally opened on the site of the city’s Schönefeld Airport late last year. While the airport has been running at a reduced capacity due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has still been welcoming new arrivals.
Hello Transavia
On Saturday, Transavia launched its first flight to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER). The french LCC is set to fly to the German capital city once a week on Saturdays from now on, with a Paris flight planned to commence in October. The airline previously flew to Schönefeld as recently as March 2020 but had yet to fly to the airport since its rebranding.
The first flight departed from Montpellier at 18:25, 25 minutes behind schedule. Despite the late departure, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft made good time on the route to Berlin. It landed as TO4546 at 20:02, just two minutes late, according to data from FlightRadar24.com.
According to the airline, the flight is set to depart from Montpelier at 18:00, landing in Berlin two hours later at 20:00. The return flight is then set to leave Berlin 45 minutes later at 20:45, following a tight turnaround in typical LCC fashion. The return is scheduled to arrive back in Montpellier at 22:45.
In typical Berlin Airport fashion, the flight crew posed outside the aircraft with the airport’s new arrival photo props, brought in when Terminal 1 opened in October. The same props were seen just a week ago when Icelandic carrier PLAY operated its first flight to the new airport.
LCCs using the main terminal
Transavia currently uses Terminal 1 at Berlin Brandenburg, alongside Ryanair, Sun Express, and other low-cost carriers. However, it’s unclear if it will remain here in the long run. When the new airport terminal opened, the airport’s operators had intended to keep the soviet era Terminal 5 in operation for ultra-low-cost carriers.
In the months since, Terminal 5 was closed for at least a year to save costs at the airport. After all, why pay to operate two terminals at reduced capacity when you can run one instead? One would imagine that Transavia may be relocated to Terminal 5 alongside the likes of Ryanair, should it ever reopen.
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Interestingly, if it does relocate, it won’t be joined by its fellow low-cost carrier, easyJet. The orange Airbus operator was an integral part of the airport’s opening ceremony, arriving alongside Lufthansa to officially open the airport. It then operated the first outbound flight from the airport the next day.
What do you make of Transavia’s arrival in Berlin? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below!
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