AIR BERLIN recently announced, at a press conference held at the Carlton Palace Hotel in Lisbon, that is has increased its air traffic, to and from Portugal, by 68 per cent since it launched its Lisbon and Oporto services in 2004.
Despite soaring kerosene prices, the competitively priced airline has flown 99,922 passengers to and from Lisbon in 2005 and 96,425 passengers to and from Oporto.
“This airline operates from four Portuguese airports, Faro, Funchal, Lisbon and Oporto. The idea is to offer a Portuguese link to all the major destinations in Europe, while Air Berlin increasingly wants to position itself as a European airline,” said Alvaro Middleman, Director General of Air Berlin for Portugal and Spain at the Carlton Palace Hotel.
The low fare airline follows a consistently low price policy, with tickets to Palma de Mallorca from 29 Euros, and 69 Euros for other European destinations. These prices include taxes and services such as light refreshments and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as newspapers and in-flight magazines.
A recent Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC) study concluded that Air Berlin was one of the safest airline companies in the world. It also won the German Stiftung Warentest best airline award (German equivalent of consumer group Deco) in 2005, beating 15 other international airlines.
Air Berlin flies to 55 strategic points in Europe and North Africa and has several services to Great Britain including London (Stanstead) Glasgow, Belfast and Manchester.
