Travel: Flights to Berlin from Budapest (bud)

Berlin has three airports :

• Tegel International Airport (ICAO: EDDT, IATA: TXL) - located in the north-west of the city; the main airport for the flagcarriers (Lufthansa, BA, Air France, KLM, Delta etc) and hub for domestic flights as well as those from western Europe and the USA. Buses from Tegel operate to S+U Alexanderplatz, Hauptbahnhof (bus TXL) and S+U Zoologischer Garten (buses X9 and 109) for the standard ticket fare.

• Schönefeld (ICAO: EDDB, IATA: SXF) - small airport southeast of the city centre; increasingly the focus for low-cost airlines (e.g. Aer Lingus, Easyjet and GermanWings) and charter flights in addition to traffic from Asia and eastern Europe. The airport is served by the S-Bahn and train: the line S9 will take you conveniently to (and through) the city centre via such major stations as U Ostbahnhof, S+U Alexanderplatz, S Hauptbahnhof and S+U Zoologischer Garten. There are also less regular but faster regional trains that cost the same and stop at these major train stations too.

• Tempelhof (ICAO: EDDI, IATA: THF) - a small relic of the pre-war era due for closure in October 2008, Tempelhof is located immediately south of the city centre but has only a small number of connections serviced mainly by domestic and european flights (Eurowings, DBA, Windrose Air, SN Brussels and numerous minor business carriers). Take U6 at Platz der Luftbrücke to Friedrichstrasse Station.

Construction of the new Airport Berlin Brandenburg International has started at Schönefeld and the new airport is scheduled for opening in 2011. After this, all air traffic in the Berlin-Brandenburg region will be bundled at BBI, and other airports in the region closed down.

Various airlines, such as Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France have direct flight connections between Berlin and major German and European cities. Lufthansa, the German flag carrier airline, has several own counters in Tegel. It can be difficult to find a direct flight to Berlin from outside of Europe. Most airlines will fly to their major hub airports such as Frankfurt and Munich and offer connecting (or code-share) flights to Berlin.

Since end of 2005 Delta and Continental Airlines have established daily direct flights from New York (JFK and Newark).