German and Scandinavian routes boost Birmingham Airport operations
FLIGHTS from Birmingham Airport have received a further boost with two new services being introduced at the aviation hub.
Firstly, SAS Scandinavian Airlines is to launch a new direct route from Birmingham to Stockholm from October 29.
The service will consist of one daily flight to Stockholm every day except Saturdays. The airline will operate a 120-seater 737-600 aircraft.
Hans Dyhrfort, SAS Regional General Manager for the UK, Ireland & Iceland, said: “We are delighted to announce the expansion of our operations. With 8m people living within 60 minutes of the airport, Birmingham is an important area of development for us.”
The airline now serves Stockholm directly from London Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Birmingham.
“This is giving us the opportunity to better serve West/East Midlands businesses as well as leisure communities,” added Mr Dyhrfort.
Martyn Lloyd, Air Services Development Director for Birmingham Airport, said: “We’re delighted SAS has recognised the need for services to Stockholm and has taken the decision to expand its route network from Birmingham Airport.”
German airline Lufthansa has also begun operations on its new Birmingham to Berlin service. The new service, launched at the beginning of June, is already proving a hit with travellers, with the airline’s advance bookings between June and October up by 23%.
The Berlin service has been introduced as part of Lufthansa’s expansion in preparation for the opening of the new Berlin-Brandenburg ‘Willy Brandt’ Airport next year and quickly follows the introduction of flights from Birmingham to Hamburg at the end of March.
Welcoming the start of the new service Christian Schindler, Lufthansa General Manager UK & Ireland, said: “The addition of the new direct flights to Berlin and Hamburg reaffirms the importance of Birmingham within the Lufthansa network. Our investment and development at Berlin provides new opportunities for Lufthansa to increase its offering to Birmingham passengers and the service is already proving very popular.
“This is proved by the 23% increase in our advanced bookings from Birmingham where, in addition to the growth in point-to-point passengers travelling to Germany we are also seeing growth in passengers from Birmingham taking onward connections through the Lufthansa hubs at Frankfurt and Munch to Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Russia, Japan and the Chinese destinations of Shenyang, Tsingtao.”
The Berlin service uses modern and fuel-efficient aircraft from the Airbus 320 family (A321, A320, A319) in a two class configuration.
