American Airlines Launches First Direct Flight From Philadelphia to Berlin

The first direct flight between Philadelphia and Berlin will launch on June 7, 2019, nearly 30 years after the Berlin Wall fell. Travelers can now purchase tickets for nonstop flights from Philadelphia to Berlin through American Airlines, with four flights taking to the skies every week through September 28, 2019.

This new travel benefit is just one of Berlin’s cultural initiatives to engage residents and travelers from all corners of the globe. Berlin will be hosting a city-wide series of events, commemorations and festivities from November 4 - 10, 2019, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Spread among seven historical sites, the city plans to transform into a “unique open-air exhibition and event location,” according to a press release from Visit Berlin.

Additionally, Berlin will be celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Bauhaus movement this year. Tracing its roots back to Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus movement snaked through Germany throughout the 1920s before the National Socialists forced it to close in Berlin in 1933. The movement itself “wrote history, stands for Made in Germany, and provides important stimuli and impulses to questions of the present,” according to the press release. Events will take place throughout the year to commemorate the legacy of this movement.

Other events to keep an eye out for in late 2019 and beyond are the reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace, which will house the Humboldtforum, the opening of the James-Simon-Galerie on Museum Island, the opening of the Futurium, and the opening of the House of One for Jews, Christians and Muslims.

And Berlin doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Besides these anticipated events, the new direct flight from Philadelphia to Berlin will touch down just in time for travelers to experience Berlin’s newest artistic attractions. On the museum front, visitors will be able to experience the last few weeks of the Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini exhibit displayed in the Gemäldegalerie gallery of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Presented in conjunction with the National Gallery, London, the exhibit will feature around 100 works by the two great rivals of the Italian Renaissance.

Travelers can also peruse the Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art, which opened in September 2017 and works to celebrate and preserve the city’s iconic graffiti and street art. Additionally, fans of the Pergamon Museum can enjoy Yadegar Asisi’s Panorama exhibit while waiting for the museum’s restoration project to be completed, and sports fans can check out the PalaisPopulaire, featuring presentations from the Deutsche Bank Collection.

For the foodies, Berlin has become a culinary constellation with 23 Michelin stars as of 2018, including five two-star restaurants and 13 one-star restaurants. The city’s two-star Michelin chef Sebastian Frank was crowned the “Best Chef in Europe 2018” at the madridfusión international gastrocongress in January 2018, making him the first German cook to receive the award.

To work up an appetite for these star-studded meals, travelers can discover Berlin on foot through the 20 Green Walks in Berlin program. These 20 trails offer a variety of active options for travelers looking to shake off jet lag, including “marked walks and hikes, green short-cuts, fitness trails, or longer excursions to explore the city and its environs,” according to the press release.

As the dust settles 30 years after the fall of the wall, Berlin has made itself more accessible than ever. A survey conducted by Hotel.com shows that the average hotel rate Americans paid in Berlin was US$137 per night, falling significantly under rates in other popular European destinations. And with the Berlin Welcome Card, tourists can receive discounted tickets for over 200 top attractions, events and services.

American Airlines’ new nonstop flight to Berlin will provide Philadelphians with the opportunity to experience this golden cultural chapter for themselves. Philadelphians, if you’ve been looking for a sign to travel to Berlin, don’t hesitate because this is it.

Coming soon, American Airlines will also be offering seasonal nonstop flights from Philadelphia to three other European cities: Bologna, Italy; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Dubrovnik, Croatia, a fellow world heritage city. Check American Airlines' website, www.aa.com, for more details. 

Article written by Amelia Winger on behalf of Global Philadelphia Association