apseals

I will be in Berlin at the end of September. I have a former exchange student that is living in Brussels. We have not seen each other in ten years and she is trying to find the cheapest and/or quickest way to get from Brussels to Berlin. I have checked all of the cheap airlines and don't see a route that even comes close. Any help would be much appreciated!

stardust

As far as I know there are no cheap airlines flying this route indeed.
What she could do is fly Cologne/Bonn to Berlin with HLX or FlyDBA:

http://www.hlx.com
http://www.flydba.com

The Eurolines bus is really cheap but not exactly fast.

ira

Hi ap,

Try www.whichbudget.com

rex

A lot depends on your definition of cheap and quick. I'm sure you can build it yourself using a connecting city - - it will likely require two airlines, and ww.whichbudget.com willlet you see all the choices for companies serving Brussels and Berlin.

Not the greatest itinerary in the world, but you could construct it from Maersk Air and Easyjet through Copenhagen (18:05->19:25; 21:30->22:40) for 29 euro + 70 DKK.

There may be better ways to do this.

Best wishes,

Rex

ira

PS

http://www.europebyair.com has flights for $99 each way.

111op

The $99 on Europebyair doesn't include airport taxes, I think, but it looks like SN Brussels flies this route (according to Europbyair). A flight leaves at 3:15 and gets in at 4:40. It goes to the Tempelhof Airport -- I'm not sure where that is exactly and how convenient it is to Berlin proper.

111op

My guess would be that Templehof is fairly convenient -- see

http://www.berlin-airport.de/PubEnglish/

Personally I think that I flew into Tegel, but I could be mistaken.

Apparently the long-term plans are to close Tegel and Templehof permanently and to make Schoenefeld the new international airport (check on the link on that page at the bottom).

viennese

Tempelhof airport is one of 3 Berlin airports, and it really is THE city airport as it is only 6 km from the city center.

To many inhabitants of Berlin, Tempelhof airport has a sentimental meaning as it is the airport where the US planes landed and brought food to West-Berlin during the Soviet blockade in 1948/49. The US planes were called "Rosinenbomber" (meaning raisin bombers).

111op

Interesting -- so that's where the famous airluft (?) took place?

flanneruk

Viennese:

Really?

Berliners, who do not share the view held in one tiny part of the world that all the world's achievements are American, are aware that Templehof was only one of the airports used in the Airlift, and that apart from coal, a bigger tonnage of supplies, and far more people, were flown by the RAF than by the USAF - at a greater loss of service and civilian life.

But I do appreciate that might be a tad pedantic for some re-creators of history.

apseals

Thanks everyone! I will pass on this thread to her so she can pursue what is best for her. Fordorite's come through again!

viennese

Flanneruk, I beg your pardon. I didn't mean to recreate history. I just didn't know better although I should have known.

ira

My dear flanner,

I surely do not mean to contradict you, but I find it curious why you would wish to leave out the almost 1.5 million tons of coal (10 times that delivered by the UK and France) delivered by the USAF.

Even so, the RAF contribution was only 15000 tons more.

As far as deaths go, it seems to have been 5 RAF to 3 USAF. Not a major loss of life.

See http://www.usafe.af.mil/berlin/quickfax.htm

viennese

Flanner and Ira, I just wanted to provide a bit of historical information (sorry it was one-sided). I never thought of starting a political discussion.

I am German (although living in Vienna now), and I do appreciate what the Allied Forces did for Germany (and Austria). Let me say thank you to all of them, including the French.