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airberlin hand picks Gatwick Airport as a London base

Direct News Source

16-Nov-2010 Gatwick Airport announced today, Tuesday 16 November, that Europe’s sixth largest airline carrier - airberlin – has chosen Gatwick as its London base to operate new services to Nuremberg and Hanover.

Gatwick is now the only London based airport to offer passengers direct flights to Nuremberg. airberlin is set to launch the scheduled services in February 2011.

airberlin is the second European airline in the last 18 months to choose Gatwick as its London base; Norwegian Air Shuttle moved its entire operation from Stansted to Gatwick in mid-2009 primarily because of the direct and fast public transport links into the heart of the Capital. Of all the London airports, the non-stop Gatwick Express provides the fastest route into central London with just a 30 minute journey into Victoria.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick Airport's Chief Executive said: "We are absolutely delighted to welcome airberlin to Gatwick and offer our passengers new routes into two of Germany's great cities.

"We are transforming Gatwick with a £1 billion investment programme that will modernise the facilities, improve customer service and bolster the public transport links into London, to make Gatwick London's airport of choice. Today's news demonstrates we are making headway in achieving that vision. This is the first step in a long-term relationship with airberlin, which we hope will generate further destinations not currently served by Gatwick and open up more choice for our passengers."

Titus Johnson, Country Manager airberlin UK & Ireland, commented: "airberlin's arrival at Gatwick will give the opportunity of full service at lower fares for a greater number of people, as Gatwick has a high penetration of consumers in London and the south east."

Nuremberg and Hanover are key business as well as popular leisure destinations. By luring airberlin to its airport, Gatwick strengthens its position when competing for business traffic in the London, German and wider European markets.

Under new ownership, Gatwick is targeting growth to at least 40 million passengers per year by 2018 - an increase of 20% from its current 32.5 million passengers per year. Attracting airberlin will help Gatwick on its journey to achieve that passenger growth target. When airberlin operates its services next year, annual passenger volumes are expected to increase by 365,000.