Thanks for the historical apercu to all!
Oliver, I got the sister cities mixed up because I have personal connections to Hamburg and Paris (studied there), as well as Berlin (my future home base). So I switched in Berlin for Hamburg. Thanks for pointing it out.
I hope AB, CO and DL keep their directs to NY. Otherwise I have to get used to flying through FRA which I really don't enjoy so much. TXL is an incredibly convenient airport.
Track, it was this very assumption and the impression I had from 15 years ago, that there should be more flights given the status. But flight routes are rather calculated for passenger volume than for status, as we can clearly see.
Till