Lufthansa adds new destinations for summer 2012

Lufthansa has unveiled its summer 2012 schedule, further increasing its flight offerings, particularly from Berlin to seasonal holiday destinations in Europe. In the long-haul sector, two new destinations will be added to Lufthansa’s network in China. Lufthansa will operate flights to 216 destinations in 83 countries this summer (compared to 211 destinations in 84 countries in 2011). The summer timetable is effective from March 25 until Oct. 27. The opening of Germany’s largest airport – Berlin Brandenburg (BER) – on June 3 will mark a new chapter for Lufthansa. From that date, the airline will offer 28 new, non-stop connections, thus expanding its route network to and from the German capital from 11 to 39 routes (26 routes to European destinations and two new routes from Berlin to the Middle East). If one includes the services provided by the Lufthansa German Airlines Group and the Star Alliance partners, passengers departing from Berlin will then have a choice of fast, convenient, non-stop connections to almost 50 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and North America. This represents a fourfold increase in services operated from Berlin, compared to the previous timetable. Seating capacity at Berlin will increase by more than 40%. New Lufthansa destinations that were previously not served non-stop from Berlin include Valencia, Bologna, Birmingham and Beirut. At the same time, Lufthansa will also introduce a new pricing system that has been specially developed for the Berlin market. For the first time, fares for all Lufthansa flights between Berlin and European destinations will start as low as 49 euros – one way, all-inclusive. All aircraft deployed on these routes will be configured in a two-class layout, i.e. with Business Class and Economy Class. And, with the introduction of the summer timetable, services will be resumed to Shenyang in northeastern China. From there, the flight will continue on to Qingdao (formerly known as Tsingtao) on China’s eastern seaboard, linking the city to Lufthansa’s route network for the first time. The airline is also adding four new holiday destinations to its network: Knock (Ireland), Montpellier (France), Odessa (Ukraine) and Pula (Croatia). (http://www.lufthansa.com)