When Berlin’s new Brandenburg Airport opens on 3rd June 2012, it will be blessed with 29 new routes from national carrier Lufthansa – a clear sign that the airport will bring about a new era for air travel to the city.

Today, Lufthansa’s network to Berlin Tegel Airport is limited to domestic and a few European services. However, when the airline moves to the new airport on its opening day, it will introduce 130 new flights each week. New destinations include:

Flybe Nordic has now started operations from its Helsinki base and has its sights set on dominating the regional market in the Finnish and Baltic market.

It is initially starting 24 routes, two of which will be from the smaller base at Tallinn in Estonia. These routes cover the domestic network in Finland, and routes to Sweden, Norway and Poland (as well as Estonia). More routes are due to be added in December.

The airline has taken over Finncomm Airlines. I believe their existing fleet of ATR aircraft will still be used initially, but ultimately Flybe’s DHC-8-400 aircraft will be taking over.

It will be interesting to see how aggressively they expand and pursue other routes in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, and whether this will have a knock-on effect on other airlines in the area. It will also be interesting to see what effect it has on Helsinki and Tallinn airports in terms of movements and passenger numbers, and whether it has a big impact on Finnair, who have involvement with the airline.

Ryanair surprised a few people today by announcing a new base is to be set up at Karlsruhe Baden-Baden airport in Germany. This will be their 47th base, and their 4th in Germany, but it comes after they made a big fuss about the German government’s imposition of passenger taxes and threatened to pull out many routes.

Ryanair already serve 12 destinations from the airport, so the addition of seven more routes and two dedicated Boeing 737-800 aircraft based there is not going to cause too much to shout about for the spotter. But it is nevertheless good news for the airport, which is currently Germany’s 18th largest.

The new base will take effect from March 2012. The new destinations are: Faro, Malaga, Palma, Riga, Thessaloniki, Vilnius and Zadar.

What do you think of this news?

On 31st October easyJet will finally retire the last two examples of its Boeing 737 fleet.

The airline was one of the first low-cost carriers in Europe to take on the model of Southwest Airlines in the USA. This model was based around a single-fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft, and was adopted by other airlines such as Ryanair.

easyJet started with leased 737-200 models in 1995, but later acquired -300s (including those of carrier Go Fly, which it acquired in 2002) and then Next Generation -700s.

However, the 737 is no longer the only cheap and efficient short-to-medium haul airliner on the market in this seat category. Today, the Airbus A319/20/21 is just as good. In the early 2000s, easyJet started ordering the A319 model in large numbers, and we saw the Boeing 737s being retired.

Recently only a few have been left in service, flying from the airline’s London Luton base. Now they are to disappear.

It remains to be seen whether easyJet will revert in the future to another order for a Boeing product, such as the re-engined 737MAX. Their A319 deliveries have now been completed.

I personally have flown on many of the airline’s 737 flights around Europe and personally thought the livery looked very good on them. It is sad to see them go!

Today, 21st October 2011, is the day Frankfurt/Main Airport opens its new 4th runway to operations.

The project has seen the new 25R/07L and its associated taxiways built with German precision and efficiency to the north-west of the airfield. It is shorter than the other runways at the airport, and will be used mainly for commuter and smaller airliner arrivals to ease pressure on the other runways.

This will make things a little more interesting for the spotter, and no doubt it will bring about some new places to spot from as enthusiasts explore.

The previous runway 25R/07L is now designated 25C/07C.

If you’re at Frankfurt any time soon, let us know what it’s like with the new runway in operation.

And if you’re a member of the UK Government – look, a 4th runway at a major airport. Opened with very little trouble or opposition. Why can’t we do the same for our busy hubs?

British Airports Authority (BAA) has finally made up its mind as to which of its Scottish airports it is going to sell. It had been told it had to, much like it was told to sell a London airport and got rid of Gatwick.  They have chosen Edinburgh, and will now set in place the process of selling it to another operator.

This is quite surprising as in recent years Edinburgh has shown much more promise, with a number of new routes and operators in place, and a lot more inbound passengers coming to enjoy the city. Glasgow, on the other hand, has not really changed much.

However, it might not be surprising given that Glasgow is the UK’s third largest city and the airport is much bigger and better equipped; Edinburgh would need a runway and terminal extension to handle more/larger aircraft.

What do you think of the choice? What will it mean for Edinburgh and Glasgow airports in the future?

Details have been announced about the opening of the brand new Berlin Brandenburg Airport in Germany.

The airport will open its doors to scheduled services on 3 June 2012.

Initially, airlines such as airBaltic, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Spanair and Swiss will be moving across from Tegel Airport which is to close in 2012, and also airlines from Schonefeld Airport (which is on the same site as the new Brandenburg Airport)

Routes are starting to appear in GDS for the new airport, so this will give you an idea of what operations will be like. Brandenburg promises to be the most modern airport in Europe when opened, and is certainly looking good from the photos I’ve seen.

I wonder what it will be like for spotting.

Gatwick is the long-suffering London airport in the shadow of the busier and more prestigious Heathrow. Yet I want to highlight it as a unique and fantastic place in its own right, and is this week’s Friday Favourite.

Gatwick has grown to become the world’s busiest single runway airport. At peak times, you can often see aircraft touching down just as another get airborne.

In terms of traffic, it is the second busiest British Airways hub, with flights to Europe, the Caribbean and North America. It is also a busy hub for Virgin Atlantic.

Gatwick has always been London’s “charter airport”, and today you can still see a lot of UK and European charter airlines flying in, such as Thomson Airways, Monarch and Thomas Cook. It is also a base for easyJet and Ryanair flights, amongst many other airlines that you don’t see at Heathrow.

Viewing at Gatwick has been a problem since the observation deck closed down in 2002. But there are a few spots around the perimeter and from the car parks to watch aircraft come and go. Perhaps the best place is at the end of runway 08 where there is a crash gate that gives views of aircraft on final approach and lining up for takeoff – but don’t park your car here!

I’m sure many of you remember the classic days of Gatwick from the 60s to 80s when old propliner and first generation jet airliners were the norm. There’s a great DVD you can buy showing these glory days – see here: http://www.avionvideo.com/programDetails.asp?pid=42

With the planned entry to service of ANA (and the world’s) first Boeing 787 aircraft, they have now announced details of what routes the aircraft will fly on initially. Here’s some details (thanks to the excellent Airlineroute.net blog):

The first commercial route will be a charter from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong on 26 October 2011, returning on 27 October.

Scheduled domestic services will start between Tokyo Haneda and Okayama on 1 November, followed by Haneda to Hiroshima.

Scheduled international services will be flown between Tokyo Haneda – Beijing 1x weekly from December 2011, and Tokyo Haneda – Frankfurt 3x weekly from January 2012 (daily from February 2012).

So it seems Haneda is initially the place to go and see the aircraft, but European spotters will be delighted at the regular services into Frankfurt from early next year. This flight will arrive around 0525 and depart 1115 each morning.

STOP PRESS! Boeing are sending one of their 787 aircraft to the UK in September, visiting two airports.

The airliner will arrive at Manchester Airport direct from Seattle on the morning of 3rd September, where it will be shown to existing customers Monarch Airlines and ThomsonFly.

Then, on 4th September it will be flown to London Heathrow airport. I believe this is in order to demonstrate the aircraft to British Airways, but please comment if this isn’t the case.

Well I’ll be heading to Manchester to catch this I think. Anyone else going? I’ve heard it will be one of the machines painted in ANA livery.