IN BRIEF | Qantas has nixed reports that it will shortly abandon flights to Frankfurt in favour of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport set to open in June.
The Red Roo's current European schedule sees daily flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Frankfurt via Singapore, for travellers whose business interests lie in Europe rather than the UK.
But with Qantas gaining Germany's second-largest airline airberlin as a new partner via the oneworld alliance, and airberlin moving its own hub to Brandenburg – handily located just 18 kilometres south of central Berlin – there's been speculation that Qantas would likewise shift its flights from Frankfurt to Brandenburg to make for easier connections and transfers.
However, in response to a question by Australian Business Traveller, a Qantas spokesman said "I can confirm that we have no plans to introduce flights to Berlin."
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 785
Pretty sure that QF would love nothing more than to not fly further west than SIN or BKK...
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Nov 2011
Total posts 243
I say to make this work, start the flight from KUL to Berlin - it could be Qantas/ Malaysia Airlines / airBerlin - one airline to Berlin and all codeshare on it :)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
20 Nov 2011
Total posts 186
Despite Frankfurt being a Star Alliance Hub I would imagine that Frankfurt still rtands as a good option for Business travel given its status as the former West Germany capital. As for leisure travel, well its pretty well situated for access to the Rhine Valley, and the ski fields. QF are denying any plans, but David I wonder wether Berlin has made it onto the list of potential destinations for JQ, or the QF 787s in 5+ yrs time?
02 Sep 2011
Total posts 16
Watch it:
QF will (hopefully) base 787's in SIN, so they can do
SYD-SIN
BNE-SIN
MEL-SIN
PER-SIN
AKL-SIN
So in total: 2x daily SYD-SIN, 1x daily MEL/ADL/BNE/PER-SIN,
SIN-CDG (continues from SYD)
SIN-FCO (continues from SYD)
SIN-LHR (3x daily - from SYD,MEL,BNE)
SIN-FRA (continues from MEL)
SIN-BER (continues from BNE)
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 785
Sounds good ... but can QF get the 787s in time before other carriers have decimated their international market share? That is the question.
15 Apr 2011
Total posts 580
It's going to happen eventually, if QF even keeps flights to Germany at all. Just because the direct plans aren't in the pipeline yet doesn't mean that there aren't long term objectives - FRA simply does not make sense compared with BER and AB.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2555
Yep, I agree - my 2c is that sooner or later, if Qantas sticks with Germany at all, it'd make sense to move to Berlin.
20 Jul 2011
Total posts 72
Frankfurt very much makes sense. It has lots of O&D traffic and frequent, easy connections on the train and on Lufthansa to anywhere in Germany and Europe.
Berlin is a low-yielding, tourist destination with poor connections to the business centres of Germany. Air Berlin has a far more limited network than Lufthansa. And Lufthansa and Qantas have worked together, interlined and sold tickets on each other's flights for years. So what if they're a different alliance? It has worked for them so far.
I think Qantas (or Jetstar) would do better serving Munich before they added Berlin.
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