Hamburg is Germany’s fifth-largest airport with a catchment of around 10 million people across Northern Germany and Denmark.

With the highest GDP in Germany and more millionaires than anywhere else in the country, Hamburg is the largest non-capital airport in Europe.

The city has many tourist sights and is also home to the European headquarters of multiple companies, including Beiersdorf, Airbus, Google, Facebook, Heinemann, and Montblanc.  This drives the potential for new routes.

Speaking to us, Gesa Zaremba, Hamburg’s Head of Airline and Traffic Development, said that its top unserved route in Europe is Toulouse with over 50,000 passengers a year, partly from Airbus traffic.

Birmingham is also high on Hamburg’s wish list, Zaremba said, together with Bilbao, Marseille, Bologna, Florence, and Graz.  All offer “high potential for non-stop service,” she said.

Long-haul, New York is a key target following United Airlines ending Newark at the back end of 2018.  With over 90,000 passengers, Bangkok is Hamburg’s largest long-haul market, while Shanghai, Singapore, and Hong Kong each had more than 40,000 passengers.

“Shanghai is officially Hamburg’s partner city,” Zaremba said.  “There is a lot of trade between our two cities and there are several Chinese companies located in Hamburg.”

Hamburg has been pushing forward during the pandemic, aided by its recovery incentive programme designed to help airlines to grow.  “We wanted to support our airlines during this very cost-intensive phase.”