Four cases

Air Berlin

Air Berlin is a LCC charter type, which started operation as a charter in 1979. The first scheduled flights mentioned in the OAG database started in 1999. Figure 45 gives an overview of the Air Berlin network in 1999 and September 2003. The first scheduled flights in 1999 departures from different airports in Germany with destinations in Mallorca, a dense, popular tourist region. A few years later in September 2003 Mallorca is still the destination airport with the most crowded routes departure from different airports in Germany. The North South direction of the network is visible, in which routes leave from German airports to different destinations around the Mediterranean Sea.

Figure 45, Network development Air Berlin, LCC charter type
1999 2003-09
Source: OAG (2005), click image to enlarge

Figure 46 shows the next two selected periods. In September 2004 different routes between Germany and especially Mallorca become more intense (point A in figure 46). The network is also extended towards East Europe with two routes. The newly created routes where abandoned in the next year, September 2005, probably because they where unprofitable. In this year other new routes rise to for example England (point C), and the destination airport at Mallorca starts to operate more as a transfer airport which serves other airports (Point D). Although exceptional, it now becomes possible to travel from England via Berlin via Mallorca to an end destination in Spain. These flights are presented on the website as a point-to-point flight but do have a transfer at Mallorca.

Figure 46, Network development Air Berlin, LCC charter type
2004-09 2005-09
Source: OAG (2005), click image to enlarge