Berlin corridor routes 1950-90

[WHBM]

Quick question about the Berlin corridor routes.

I'm familiar with all the regulations that covered the Berlin corridor routes. Pan Am and BEA (later BA) were the main operators, but there were a number of UK and US, and indeed some French, operators that came and went over time as well. There didn't seem to be any inherent restrictions on which carriers from the Allied countries could operate.

So why did Lufthansa never contract with a UK/US operator to run any such services but under their own branding. There didn't seem to be any restriction on the branding as such, only that the actual operation had to be by a carrier with crews from the designated countries. Would a UK charter operator not have leapt at the chance to run a significant fleet out of Berlin under contract ? They ran plenty of IT flights down to the Med from there under their own names with UK crews, and various UK charter operators over time had a Berlin base.

[alisoncc]

Did numerous trips into Templehof with Pan Am's IGS - Internal German System, in the late sixties. They seemed to have the whole market sewn up so little need for Lufthansa's presence. At the time had significant involvement with mods to the AVQ10 weather radar on Pan Am, to better able them to negotiate around storm cells as avoiding them wasn't an option if within the corridor.

[Groundloop]

Did numerous trips into Templehof with Pan Am's IGS - Internal German System, in the late sixties. They seemed to have the whole market sewn up

I think BEA would have disagreed with that statement!

[robmack]

As part of the agreement, the Russiand wouldn't allow German planes into Berlin.

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

WHBM - this is to ignore Euroberlin - not to be confused with Air Berlin - isn't it? Input Euroberlin France on Wikipedia for further info.

I positioned Boeing 737-3YO G-MONH from Luton to Berlin Tegel on the evening of 6th November 1988, reconfigured with the new Lufthansa cabin interior: 20 business, 98 economy. We flew out on an Air France something something 'Victor' callsign, and operations commenced next morning with the Eurobear callsign. 'NH was one year old, the other three initial 737s were brand new.

"Euro - what?" said the American ground controller at Tegel. "It's their funny way of saying Looft-hansa" said a deep drawl from a PanAm 727. (The 'bear' bit comes Berlin's mascot.)

Oh and this meant I was in Berlin the night the wall came down ...

:ok:

[WHBM]

G-ALHI :

Thank you for pointing out about EuroBerlin. always imagined it was an Air France/Monarch joint venture, hadn't realised Lufthansa actually had half of the share capital and Monarch weren't financially involved.

Came very late in the day though. And I wonder why they went for a different name to Lufthansa, or LuftBerlin, or similar.

Oh and this meant I was in Berlin the night the wall came down ...http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/src:www.pprune.org/get/images/smilies/thumbs.gif Watched it all fascinated on the television, and even looked up the flight schedules to get there the next day (was Dan-Air doing Gatwick to Berlin by then ?). If we'd had Internet booking in those days I would probably have gone for it !

[Georgeablelovehowindia]

With the name branding, Lufthansa had to adopt a 'softly softly' diplomatic approach. Looking back, it's surprising how politically sensitive it still was, to allow LH back into Berlin, in any shape or form. Even as I arrived in TXL that night, there was considerable doubt as to whether the allied powers would permit operations to start the next morning. Everyone knew it was Lufthansa, in all but name, though.

The flight bookings were totally within the LH reservations system. This meant that, for example, if you booked JNB - FRA - TXL on LH, on check-in at JNB, you also got your boarding pass for the EE flight, with seat allocated. At FRA, you proceeded to gate A25, our usual (non-remote) stand, right next to the terminal building, walked down the tunnel, and boarded another aircraft with a Lufthansa interior. That's the (then) new Lufthansa interior, the Euroberlin 737s were the first to get them. A seamless product!

Who would have predicted that one year after Euroberlin started, we would see the fall of the Berlin Wall? The tiny little red 'France' disappeared from the sides of the aircraft within weeks, and it led to EE's eventual demise. It took longer than LH might have liked, though. The late A J Snudden - the man that Dan-Air's Fred Newman let go to Monarch - had stitched up a proper watertight contract!

:)