air Berlin

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Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG iI
Air Berlin logo
Airbus A330-200 of Air Berlin
IATA code : FROM
ICAO code : BER
Call sign : AIR BERLIN
Founding: 1978
Operation stopped: 2017
Seat: Berlin , Germany
GermanyGermany 
Turnstile :

Berlin-Tegel
Düsseldorf

Home airport : Berlin Tegel
Company form: Limited & Co. KG
IATA prefix code : 745
Management: Thomas Winkelmann ( CEO )
Alliance : Etihad Airways Partners and oneworld
Frequent Flyer Program : Top bonus
Fleet size: 100
Aims: National and international
Website: www.airberlin.com
Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG iI ceased operations in 2017. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

The Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG iI (proper spelling from 2008 airberlin ), headquartered in Berlin and bases at the airports Berlin-Tegel and Dusseldorf was a German airline . It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the listed Air Berlin PLC , whose largest single shareholder was the Emirati Etihad Airways .

On August 15, 2017, Air Berlin applied for insolvency proceedings, and the commercial flight operations were continued with the help of a federal guarantee until October 27, 2017. Parts of the company, including the business at Tegel Airport and the subsidiary LGW , were sold to Lufthansa and easyJet . Until then, Air Berlin had been Germany's second largest airline. The last subsidiary of Air Berlin, Belair , filed for bankruptcy in mid-August 2018.

history

Logo of Air Berlin USA
Air Berlin USA Boeing 707-300 in 1980

Foundation and first years

After the American pilot Kim Lundgren lost his job at Pan Am in the wake of the oil price crisis , he founded Air Berlin Inc. in July 1978 as a charter airline licensed by the FAA in the US state of Oregon for flights to and from West Berlin to offer what was only allowed to aircraft of the victorious powers after World War II until German reunification in 1990 . The official seat of Air Berlin USA was Miami , which was also served from Berlin at times.

The company's first flight was on April 28, 1979 with a Boeing 707 from Berlin to Palma de Mallorca . In 1981 the two 707s were replaced by two smaller Boeing 737s . Air Berlin specialized in destinations around the Mediterranean , Palma was the company's most frequented destination for a long time.

Growth after the reunification of Germany from 1990

The former headquarters of Air Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg-Nord

After German reunification, the air sovereignty of the Allies also fell, so that a change in approval to the Federal Aviation Authority was necessary. On April 16, 1991 Joachim Hunold and Kim Lundgren founded the German Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG and took over Air Berlin Inc. In the period that followed, the managing partner Joachim Hunold fundamentally changed the company's profile.

In 1998 Air Berlin offered ten percent of the seat capacity for the first time directly without a package deal from an organizer, while a daily Mallorca shuttle started from Berlin, Düsseldorf and Paderborn. Holiday destinations around the Mediterranean were served with ten aircraft from nine German airports and Luxembourg . Air Berlin has been a member of IATA since 1999 . By 2001 the proportion of seats sold directly rose to a quarter. Holiday destinations were flown to from 14 German airports with 25 Boeing 737-800 aircraft. As a reaction to the emerging low-cost airlines , Air Berlin began in September 2002 to offer connections to major European cities with high levels of tourism under the name “City-Shuttle”.

In 2004 Air Berlin acquired 24 percent of the shares in the Austrian airline Niki . The airline Germania , which at the time employed 577 people and had a fleet of 44 aircraft, was to be bound to Air Berlin at the end of 2005 by means of a management contract; The model for this was the existing partnership between Air Berlin and Niki. Air Berlin rented aircraft from Germania, in return, Germania discontinued the highly competitive flights to Zurich and Vienna between the two companies. However, the contract did not materialize; the community of heirs of Germania could not agree on a takeover by Air Berlin, so Germania remained independent.

initial public offering

In the run-up to the IPO planned for 2006 , Air Berlin changed its corporate form from a GmbH & Co. KG to a Limited & Co. KG in January and transformed the GmbH into a stock corporation under British law (PLC) . In this case, the PLC, instead of a German legal person, is a foreign personally liable partner ( general partner ) of the German limited partnership . The reason for this change was: a.  accounting advantages and better depreciation options as well as the circumvention of corporate co -determination.

The initial public offering of Air Berlin PLC was scheduled for May 5, 2006, but was then postponed at short notice because the original price range of EUR 15 to EUR 17.30 was set too high. On May 10, 2006, the price was announced at 12 euros per share, resulting in total proceeds of 510 million euros, around 360 million euros less than originally planned. The initial listing took place on May 11, 2006. After the IPO, 38.41 percent were in free float, 16.36 percent with Deutsche Bank , 8.58 percent with Ringerike Luftfahrtbeteiligung , 8.40 percent with Hans-Joachim Knieps and other investors.

Growth through acquisitions

In August 2006, Air Berlin took over the German airline dba from Intro Verwaltungs GmbH and Aton GmbH , the price of which, according to the news magazine Focus , should have been 120 million euros. The purchase price was paid in cash. Together, the two airlines had a passenger volume of 19.7 million in 2006 after 17.5 million in the previous year. Air Berlin had a share of a good 15.2 million and dba a share of just under 4.5 million. The dba brand was withdrawn from the market by April 2007. The flight schedules of the two companies were coordinated with the beginning of the summer flight schedule 2007; Since November 2006, parts of the former dba fleet have been flying in the Air Berlin colors with the addition of a small sticker next to the front left entry door "powered by dba". This sticker was also found on every dba aircraft. The dba initially continued to exist as an independent subsidiary and operated nine aircraft. After the administration and technology of dba had already been dissolved and taken over by Air Berlin, flight operations were completely stopped on November 30, 2008. Due to a warning strike by the dba flight attendants on November 14, 2008, Air Berlin withdrew all flight orders from dba and thus shut down dba flight operations on the same day; the employees were offered positions at Air Berlin.

Airbus A330-200 of the LTU in its last livery, which was finally adopted by Air Berlin

On March 27, 2007, the takeover of the traditional German company LTU by Air Berlin was announced. At that time, the name LTU was to remain in long-haul traffic, the short and medium-haul aircraft were completely absorbed into Air Berlin's route network, which was continuing to grow. Furthermore, the livery of the Air Berlin fleet was adapted to the livery of LTU, which was recently introduced at the time. The Bundeskartellamt initially reported concerns about the takeover. On August 8, 2007, the Cartel Office approved the takeover of LTU without any conditions. In the meantime, Air Berlin had announced that it would no longer use the LTU brand, and the remaining aircraft were repainted.

Also in 2007, Air Berlin acquired a 49 percent stake in the Swiss airline Belair Airlines from the previous sole owner Hotelplan . The participation was approved on August 21, 2007 by the German and Swiss cartel offices and the EU Commission . With the participation, Air Berlin strengthened its activities on the international routes from Switzerland. In November 2007, Air Berlin took over all of Belair's European flights, while the Belair aircraft were painted by Air Berlin. All routes from Switzerland to non-EU countries are operated under 4T flight numbers and with Belair aircraft. Belair's long-haul flights were discontinued in summer 2009, and the Boeing 757 and 767 used for this purpose were retired. At the same time, Air Berlin gained full control of Belair in October 2009.

On September 20, 2007 Air Berlin announced that it would take over another German airline , Condor . The Thomas Cook Group , the main shareholder of Condor, wanted to bring in its shares in Condor Flugdienst in Air Berlin by February 10, 2009 and should receive at least 500 million euros in cash and shares in Air Berlin in return. The Federal Cartel Office had extended the review period several times. However, the application for approval of the merger was withdrawn on July 11, 2008 by Air Berlin and the tour operator Thomas Cook due to "significantly changed economic conditions".

Air Berlin logo until January 7, 2008

In mid-December 2007, Air Berlin presented its employees with a new logo including a new corporate design based on the aircraft paint scheme introduced by LTU shortly before the takeover. The basic style of red / white was retained, but the red tone became lighter and the form and written language were more modern. The logo was officially presented to the public on January 7, 2008. The Air Berlin lettering is now written in lower case and together. The logo is partially supplemented by the slogan "Your Airline" ( English for "your airline").

Fokker 100 of Germania in the colors of Air Berlin at the time (2007)

In September 2008 Air Berlin confirmed merger talks with its competitor TUIfly , but added the message to “speak to everyone”. Air Berlin already flew many flights for TUIfly through a codeshare agreement until 2007 . At the end of March 2009, Air Berlin and TUI Travel sealed a long-term strategic alliance for their German flight business. A cross-shareholding of the two companies of originally 19.9 percent each has been registered with the Federal Cartel Office for approval. After concerns were raised, this cross-participation was not implemented. Instead, TUI Travel took over a 9.9 percent stake in Air Berlin through a subsidiary as part of a capital increase in October 2009.

With the start of the 2009/10 winter flight schedule on October 25, 2009, Air Berlin took over TUIfly's city ​​route network of 117 routes, 55 of them in Italy. To this end, TUIfly chartered 13 aircraft for the 2009/10 winter season and then 14 aircraft from summer 2010 on to Air Berlin under a long-term leasing contract including crews.

At the end of March 2009 it was announced that the Turkish industrialist Ali Sabancı's ESAS Holding would take over a 15.3% stake in Air Berlin from the major Swiss bank UBS . ESAS was most recently the second largest shareholder and held 12.1% of Air Berlin (as of June 30, 2017). The ESAS Holding is u. a. Majority owner of Pegasus Airlines , Turkey's largest private airline. From this connection later, in November 2011, a new brand emerged under the name Air Berlin Turkey ; this covered the charter flight market between Germany and Turkey and was discontinued in 2013.

In 2010 Air Berlin wanted to fully integrate its long-term cooperation partner, the Austrian airline Niki, into its own company. To this end, Air Berlin intended to gradually increase its stake from then 24 percent to a controlling stake of up to 100 percent. In a first step, there was an increase from 24 to 49.9 percent. The Lauda Foundation transferred the remaining 50.1 percent of its stake in Niki to Air Berlin on the basis of a put option granted to it. Air Berlin applied for the complete takeover in March 2010 at the Austrian federal competition authority . On May 7, 2010, the latter withdrew the application for examination from the cartel court and thus granted approval for the increase in Air Berlin's stake in Niki under Austrian cartel law.

Joined the Oneworld aviation alliance

In July 2010 it was announced that Air Berlin would join the global aviation alliance Oneworld . In preparation for joining, Air Berlin agreed with American Airlines and Finnair to operate flights under codeshare agreements starting with the 2010/11 winter flight schedule. The cooperation with American Airlines gave Air Berlin passengers access to the American market, while Finnair offered codeshare flights to Helsinki and within Europe.

In June 2011, Air Berlin and British Airways signed another codeshare agreement in preparation for joining Oneworld. The cooperation agreement comprised more than 40 connections on the European routes of both companies. Further new routes were opened up through codeshare agreements with Iberia , the now defunct Malév and Royal Jordanian . Since June 2011 InterSky has also been cooperating with Air Berlin.

In March 2012, the announced accession to Oneworld was officially completed. The expanded global network now included over 800 destinations in 150 countries.

Air Berlin Boeing 737-800 in Oneworld special livery

On April 1, 2011, Air Berlin fully integrated LTU, which was taken over in August 2007. Since then there has only been one flight operation and all the technical operations of the Airberlin Group have been combined in the new company Airberlin Technik GmbH . With the cancellation of the Air Operator Certificate from LTU, its aircraft, including ten Airbus A330-200s and three A330-300s, were also integrated into Air Berlin's fleet. Also in April 2011, new routes were opened from Düsseldorf Airport.

Air Berlin has been offering non-stop connections from Berlin-Tegel to New York City since May 2011 and has operated this long-haul route four times a week since then.

Since September 2011, Air Berlin has also been cooperating with the Italian airline Meridiana and has been offering flights from Italy to Germany since October 30, 2011.

Joachim Hunold leaves the company

In August 2011 the departure of the founder Joachim Hunold was announced due to ongoing losses. On September 1, 2011, he temporarily handed over his position as CEO to the former CEO of Deutsche Bahn, Hartmut Mehdorn , who had already joined the company's supervisory board after leaving Deutsche Bahn in 2009 and who led the company until January 2013.

At the same time, a restructuring program was announced: In addition to reducing the size of the fleet, routes were also canceled as a result. For example, a large part of the routes to London were gradually discontinued, for example from Munich. Some small stations such as Erfurt-Weimar and Dortmund were completely given up on November 1st, 2012. Furthermore, an efficiency program called Shape & Size was presented in September 2011 : In addition to the route settings, the fleet will also be reduced by around 10 percent. Overall, the business model should be oriented away from the area of ​​cheap flights and more towards the other pillars of scheduled flights (at higher prices) and holiday flights.

Etihad Airways joins the company

Airbus A320-200 of Air Berlin in special livery on the occasion of the cooperation with Etihad Airways

In December 2011, Air Berlin announced that the Arab airline Etihad Airways is increasing its stake from 2.99 to 29.21 percent for 73 million euros, making it the company's largest single shareholder. While this meant economic relief for the financially troubled Air Berlin, Etihad wanted to benefit from their European route network. The joint route network of Etihad Airways and Air Berlin comprised 239 destinations in 77 countries. Daily direct flights from Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Munich provided a total of 42 connections per week to Abu Dhabi , Etihad's home base. From there there were onward flights to the Arabian Peninsula, Asia, Africa and Australia. From January 2012, Air Berlin flew non-stop from Berlin to Abu Dhabi seven times a week. The new flight connection was also the start of the codeshare agreement between Air Berlin and Etihad Airways. The frequent flyer programs Topbonus and Etihad Guest have also been cooperating since March 2012 . In June 2012, airberlin business points and Etihad Airways Business Connect for small and medium-sized companies also joined the bonus programs .

In December 2012, Air Berlin finally announced that it would spin off the Topbonus frequent flyer program into its own company, Topbonus Limited . Etihad became the largest shareholder in the new company with a 70 percent stake, while Air Berlin retained 30 percent. Air Berlin received 184 million euros from Etihad as the purchase price for the frequent flyer program.

Change in management and increasing losses

Airberlin board case for passengers

On January 7, 2013 Air Berlin announced a change of CEO. The Austrian Wolfgang Prock, previously Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, replaced Hartmut Mehdorn as Chief Executive Officer. Also in January 2013 it was announced that as part of the restructuring measures that had been going on for some time, around 900 jobs were to be cut and that the remainder of the workforce would receive a five percent wage cut. A few weeks later it was announced that the hub at Nuremberg Airport , where numerous seasonal holiday flights had previously been bundled, would no longer be continued in the 2013/2014 winter flight schedule and that in future the focus would be on direct instead of transfer connections in holiday traffic.

With the opening of the new and so far only connection between Berlin and Chicago on March 23, 2013, Air Berlin used the American Airlines hub for connections within the USA. In addition, the frequencies to New York, Los Angeles and Miami were again increased. At the same time, however, the seasonal non-stop flights to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Vancouver were canceled. In March 2013, the termination of the Air Berlin Turkey joint venture , which had been entered into with Pegasus Airlines at the end of 2011, was announced.

As of August 2013, after several sales, only ten aircraft were still owned by Air Berlin, the rest of the fleet was operated by aircraft leasing or sale-lease-back , which is also common with other airlines.

On April 28, 2014, after several delays, the company published its sales figures for the previous year and had to admit a record loss of 315.5 million euros, which was largely offset by the largest shareholder Etihad Airways in the form of an open-ended subordinated convertible bond of 300 million euros. CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer announced a “fundamental restructuring”, but did not give any details. The company's share was a member of the SDAX until June 23, 2014 .

On September 26, 2014 it was announced that Air Berlin had canceled 18 of 25 outstanding Boeing 737-800s and all 15 787-9s on order.

In October 2014, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt announced that it would no longer approve 34 codeshare connections planned for the 2014 winter flight schedule by Air Berlin and Etihad, but on October 16, 2014 these were then approved, at least for the 2014/2015 winter flight schedule. Etihad Airways had set up its own aviation alliance Etihad Airways Partners at short notice to solve the problems of approval. At the end of October 2014, it was announced that 200 more jobs would be cut in the course of 2015 without layoffs. On November 3, 2014, the resignation of CEO Wolfgang Prock was announced, his successor was Stefan Pichler on February 1, 2015 . In December 2015, the Braunschweig Administrative Court initially prohibited some of the planned codeshare connections with Etihad, but the majority of the connections were re-approved by the Lower Saxony Higher Administrative Court on January 14, 2016 .

Due to lower demand, it was announced in October 2015 that all flights to Russia would be suspended for spring 2016. In November 2015, Air Berlin announced that the Palma de Mallorca airport hub would be closed in the summer of 2016 and that the routes served from there to mainland Spain and Portugal would be phased out until then.

Since July 2016, Air Berlin no longer had its own aircraft. Instead, all aircraft were leased to reduce costs . Leasing is common in the aviation industry, but not having your own aircraft at all is rather uncommon. The ongoing lease payments are draining the cash flow and the aircraft can no longer serve as collateral for loans. In the 2016 financial year, Air Berlin completed the harmonization of the fleet by means of a complete changeover to the Airbus A320 family , which was simplified by the previous changeover to leasing. The capacities were reduced by almost ten percent compared to the previous year. Air Berlin suffered from tough competition in air traffic and from the delayed completion of Berlin Brandenburg Airport .

On September 28, 2016, Air Berlin announced a “profound restructuring” of the group after the media had reported variously in advance. The core of the restructuring was that the company should become a “specialized network carrier” with a focus on long-haul flights from Berlin and Düsseldorf with a core fleet reduced to 75 aircraft. According to the plans with 35 or up to 60 aircraft, the tourism business should be combined in a separate business unit. In addition, a total of up to 40 planes were on the Lufthansa -owned subsidiaries Euro Wings and Austrian Airlines leases that should be used from the summer schedule 2017 for this. At the same time, the dismissal of up to 1200 employees ( full-time equivalent ) was planned.

In October 2016, Air Berlin also announced redundancies at its maintenance subsidiary Airberlin Technik . In addition to the cancellation of 500 jobs in this area, the maintenance locations in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Nuremberg were completely closed. In autumn 2016, a new logo for the airline was commissioned as part of the restructuring. The new market presence was planned for autumn 2017, but was no longer implemented due to the bankruptcy.

In December 2016, the company announced its intention to sell a 49.8% stake in its subsidiary Niki to Etihad Airways. The flight routes to southern Europe, including the traditional route to Mallorca, should also be sold to Niki / Etihad. Air Berlin wants to concentrate on business travelers and holiday flights across the Atlantic in the future. The agreement was intended to simplify the business model and provided Air Berlin with EUR 300 million for further restructuring, but the transaction had not yet taken place by August 2017 due to a lack of antitrust approval.

In February 2017, Stefan Pichler was replaced by former Germanwings CEO Thomas Winkelmann . Air Berlin had barely been profitable since going public in 2006. By 2016, it had accumulated 1.14 billion euros in debt within three years.

At the end of April 2017, Air Berlin announced a negative operating result of EUR -667 million for the 2016 financial year, compared to EUR -307 million in the 2015 financial year; At the same time, the operating result for the first quarter of 2017 indicated a further deterioration in the financial situation, with an operating result (EBIT) of EUR -272 million (after EUR -172 million in the first quarter of 2016).

As part of further announced restructuring measures, the Swiss subsidiary Belair should cease operations at the end of the 2017 summer flight schedule. All of the company's Airbus A320-200s should go to Niki. Ongoing discussions with TUI about the formation of a joint holiday airline from Niki and TUIfly were broken off in June 2017 without any result.

insolvency

The last flight, No. AB6210, is ceremoniously received in Berlin
Many Air Berlin employees have come to greet the last flight in Berlin

On August 11, 2017, Etihad Air Berlin terminated further financial support. On August 15, 2017, the airline and its general partner (Air Berlin PLC) filed for insolvency proceedings in self- administration with the administrator of the creditors, Lucas Flöther , CEO Thomas Winkelmann and the general manager Frank Kebekus. For the formally British PLC, the jurisdiction of the Charlottenburg District Court was determined in accordance with the EuInsVO . The flight operations were initially continued, financed by a transitional loan secured with a federal guarantee in the amount of 150 million euros, which was approved by the EU antitrust authorities despite a complaint from competitor Ryanair .

On August 25, 2017, the company to which the frequent flyer program Topbonus is outsourced and in which Etihad holds 70% of the shares also filed for insolvency.

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, u. a. Lufthansa , easyJet and Niki Lauda together with Condor from offers for parts of Air Berlin; the bidding period ended on September 15, 2017. On September 25, 2017, one day after the federal election , it was announced that negotiations were being held with Easyjet and Lufthansa to take over most of the aircraft. In addition, negotiations will continue with other interested parties about the sale of other areas, such as Air Berlin Technik. On October 12, 2017, Lufthansa agreed to take over the Air Berlin subsidiaries Niki and LGW and to operate 20 aircraft. The shares should cost 210 million euros. Negotiations with easyJet continued. Shortly after Air Berlin ceased operations, the British company announced that it had agreed to take over 25 A320 aircraft at the Tegel airport for EUR 40 million. EasyJet wants to conclude leasing contracts for the machines. Up to 1,000 pilots and flight attendants are to be hired on the basis of collective agreements negotiated with the ver.di union .

Boarding pass for the last Air Berlin flight to Stuttgart

On the evening of October 27, 2017, shortly before midnight, after the aircraft had flown over Berlin in the shape of a stylized heart, Air Berlin's last self-operated flight landed at Berlin-Tegel Airport . The flight with flight number AB6210, arriving from Munich with a delay of one hour, carried the radio call sign "BER4EVR" and was operated by flight captain David McCaleb and co-pilot Kai Dede. Air Berlin then operated wet lease flights for Eurowings until the end of the year . On November 1, 2017, insolvency proceedings were opened against the assets of the Air Berlin companies. Shortly after the opening of the bankruptcy proceedings, the insolvency administrator announced an impending mass inadequacy .

On December 12th, the part of the takeover planned by easyJet was approved by the EU Commission. Lufthansa, however, withdrew its offer for Niki because of the negative attitude of the commission the next day.

Wet lease flights for Eurowings ended on December 31, 2017 . On January 16, 2018, self-administration in the insolvency proceedings of the companies Air Berlin PLC & Co. Air Berlin Aviation , which was only founded in 2017, was acquired from the bankruptcy estate of the Thomas Cook Group and has been operating wet lease flights for Condor under the name Thomas Cook Aviation since then .

Consequences of bankruptcy

At the beginning of August 2018, the Federal Ministry of Economics announced that 74.4 million euros had now flowed into the state treasury for the salable assets of the insolvent airline. Further significant income from the sale of former Air Berlin property to repay the 150 million euro loan is no longer to be expected. The federal government previously refused to give members of the Bundestag an opinion from the management consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), even under the condition of confidentiality. For the government, the report formed the basis on which it approved the loan to Air Berlin. The members of the Budget and Economic Committee of the Bundestag only found out about the million dollar grant after the decision and on the day of the bankruptcy petition. The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported from internal ministry documents that PwC employees had expressed clear doubts in emails to ministry employees that Air Berlin actually had sufficient securities.

In mid-August 2018, almost a year after Air Berlin went bankrupt, the insolvency administrator announced that the sale of the Air Berlin brand would be stopped for the time being. The reason he gave was that the airberlin.com domain was still being used for insolvency proceedings together with the Air Berlin brand . He also announced that, despite initial statements, it will most likely be able to repay the 150 million euros to the state treasury. More than half of the money has already been paid back. In September 2019, Air Berlin then repaid the million dollar loan in full. However, Air Berlin still has to pay the interest on the loan. With an interest rate of nine percent of the state bank KfW, more than 27 million euros have already accumulated.

Destinations

From its hubs in Düsseldorf and Berlin-Tegel, Air Berlin mainly served destinations throughout Europe as well as North Africa and Israel . Cities in North and Central America and the Caribbean were served intercontinentally .

Code sharing

Air Berlin has codeshare agreements with the following airlines: ( oneworld members are marked with * )

fleet

Airbus A320-200 of Air Berlin
De Havilland DHC-8-400 of Air Berlin

Fleet at the end of operations

In September 2017, Air Berlin's fleet consisted of 100 aircraft with an average age of 9.4 years:

Aircraft type number ordered Remarks Seats
( Business / Economy )
Airbus A319-100 011 leased to Eurowings 150 (4/146)
Airbus A320-200 064 7 equipped with sharklets ; 21 leased to Eurowings and 5 to Austrian Airlines ; 2 operated by Alitalia and 1 by Belair 165 (- / 165)
180 (4/176)
Airbus A330-200 005 290 (19/271)
De Havilland DHC-8-400 020th 20 operated by LGW ; the machines were repainted and flew for Eurowings until 2020 . 73 (3/70)
total 100 -

Previously deployed aircraft

In the past, Air Berlin also operated the following types of aircraft:

An order for 15 Boeing 787-9s and 18 of 25 Boeing 737-800s was canceled on September 24, 2014.

Paintings

Air Berlin Airbus A320-200 in the old color scheme
Airbus A319-100 of Air Berlin in interim colors

As a result of various takeovers and restructuring, Air Berlin has given a number of aircraft designs:

On April 11, 1986 Air Berlin received a Boeing 737-300 with the aircraft registration N67AB and began to replace the previous livery of Air Berlin USA with it . The color scheme consisted of a burgundy red fuselage with a gray cheatline that extended to the tail unit. The gray cheatline was no longer on the fuselage of the 737-400 from around 1998 and when the 737-800 was introduced in 2001.

Air Berlin presented its new livery in June 2007. This is strongly based on the last color scheme of the subsidiary LTU acquired at the time and completely dispenses with the burgundy red that was previously used. Instead, the lower part of the fuselage, the engines and the tail unit are painted in light red color.

In January 2008 a new logo and a new lettering were introduced - the new basic livery from June 2007 remained unchanged. After a transitional phase in which there were temporarily three parallel variants (old design, new design with old logo, new design with new logo), all aircraft in the Air Berlin Group wore the last color scheme.

As part of a new branding, which was planned in 2016, the aircraft should also get a new paint job, which should represent a reference to the hometown of Berlin and Germany with a stylized bear in the colors black, red and gold on the tail unit. However, due to the bankruptcy, this project could no longer be implemented.

Special paints

Aircraft type Aircraft registration Painting image
Airbus A320-200 D-ABDU "Air Berlin / Etihad" Air Berlin, Airbus A320-214, D-ABDU (19695609775) .jpg
D-ABFK " Bitburger Fan Force One " D-ABFK BCN (23400814284) .jpg
D-ABHC " Oneworld " -
Airbus A330-200 D-ABXA D-ABXA (18803119285) .jpg

Cabin equipment

Short and medium haul

There was an economy class in Air Berlin's short and medium-haul fleet and a business class in the A319, A320 and A321 aircraft types. Most of the machines had screens on the cabin ceiling for in-flight entertainment and flight information. The machines also had luggage racks, folding tables and sun visors on the windows.

Long haul

Business class (version from 2012) on board an Air Berlin Airbus A330-200

An economy class and a business class were offered on the Airbus A330-200 of the long-haul fleet. Since the cabin was modernized from the beginning of 2012, all machines have now had new seats in both classes and, for the first time, personal in- flight entertainment with a touchscreen at every seat. The business class seat installed at this time can be converted into a bed with an incline of around 175 °. In January 2013, Air Berlin again presented a new business class , this time developed in cooperation with Etihad Airways . For the first time, the new seats can be converted into a completely flat bed with a 180 ° incline and have a 15-inch screen and, compared to the previous model, higher side walls.

Air Berlin planned to equip its entire fleet with WiFi for access to the entertainment system and the Internet by 2017 . The conversion began in the second half of 2014. Under the name airberlin connect , a chargeable internet connection with speeds on par with 3G connections was available from an altitude of 10,000 feet. The use of Voice-over-IP services was not permitted here.

Subsidiaries and Cooperations

Selected holdings and subsidiaries of Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG:

Airberlin Holidays

The entrepreneur and L'TUR founder Karlheinz Kögel and Air Berlin announced the establishment of a joint venture on January 14th, 2008, the then Binoli and now Airberlin Holidays GmbH , based in Baden-Baden . Kögel holds 51 percent of the shares, Air Berlin the remaining 49 percent. The joint venture operated an online travel platform, which appeared on the market between 2008 and 2013 under the name “Binoli” (an acronym for Bi llig, no bel li egen) and since April 2013 it has appeared as Airberlin Holidays . Since 2015, the company has acted exclusively as an online travel agent for package tours , previously as a tour operator .

Airberlin technology

Air Berlin
Boeing 737 in an Airberlin Technik maintenance hangar at Munich Airport

The Airberlin Technology GmbH was as EASA Part-145 organization certified. With around 1,800 employees, it serviced both the Air Berlin Group's aircraft and that of other airlines. Airberlin Technik has been recognized by various national aviation authorities such as the USA FAA-145, Canadian CAA-145, Aruba EASA-145, Federal Aviation Authority of Russia and the GCAA of the United Arab Emirates.

Airberlin Flight School

Since 2007, Air Berlin has been offering a two-year training course to become a commercial pilot under the name Airberlin Flightschool in cooperation with the TFC buyer flight school . In February 2009, the Airberlin Flightschool was the first German flight school to receive training approval from the Federal Aviation Office for the new concept of the Multi-Crew Pilot License .

Air Berlin PLC

Air Berlin PLC
legal form PLC
ISIN GB00B128C026
Seat
management Thomas Winkelmann ( CEO )
Number of employees 8481 (2016)
sales 3.79 billion euros (2016)
Website www.airberlingroup.com
As of December 31, 2016

The Air Berlin PLC with registered office in the British London and administrative headquarters and branch office in Berlin was the listed parent company of the group Airberlin Group . The company ran three airlines with its wholly-owned subsidiary Air Berlin, of which it was a general partner , Niki Luftfahrt and Belair Airlines . In addition to Air Berlin, the Austrian Niki also entered the market as an airline, while the Swiss Belair operated under the Air Berlin brand identity.

The shares of Air Berlin were registered shares . They have been traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since May 2006 and were listed there in the Prime Standard until January 2018 .

Key figures

Key figures of Air Berlin PLC (Group):

year 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Sales (in billion  euros ) 0.863 1.034 1.215 1.575 2.537 3.401 3.240 3.724 4.227 4,312 4,147 4.160 4.082 3,785
Profit / loss (in million euros) 36.7 −2.9 −115.9 40.1 21.0 -75.0 −9.5 −97.2 −271.8 6.8 −315.5 −376.7 −446.6 −781.9
Employee 1956 2146 2764 4108 8360 8311 8278 8900 9113 9284 8905 8440 8869 8481
Passengers (million) 10.02 16.06 17.51 19.70 27.86 28.56 27.91 33.59 35.30 33.40 31.54 31.72 30.25 28.92
Utilization (in percent) 76.72 79.52 75.23 75.27 77.22 78.36 77.26 76.79 78.21 79.80 84.85 83.46 84.18 84.30
Aircraft
(operational at the end of the year)
46 47 79 117 124 125 152 169 170 155 140 149 153 139

owner

Shareholders of Air Berlin PLC as of December 31, 2016:

Shareholder structure based on voting rights
Share
in percent
Shareholders
58.77 Free float
29.21 Etihad Airways
12.02 ESAS Holding
Shareholder structure by nationality
Share
in percent
country
56.35 GermanyGermany Germany
29.22 United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
12.10 TurkeyTurkey Turkey
0.69 AustriaAustria Austria
0.25 SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
0.03 LiechtensteinLiechtenstein Liechtenstein
1.03 other EU countries / EEA
0.33 other states

criticism

  • In the dispute with the State of Berlin over the relocation of flight operations from Berlin-Tegel to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport , Air Berlin tried to exert pressure and threatened to relocate its headquarters and change the company name. A lawsuit brought by Air Berlin and other airlines against the closure of Tegel Airport was dismissed in 2005 in the final instance.
  • Air Berlin has been criticized from various quarters for its employee policy. The stumbling block was the public statements made by the then CEO Joachim Hunold that his company's employees did not need any unions or codetermination. Until 2007, the employees of Air Berlin and the associated companies were barely organized. While this was commented on by Air Berlin with reference to a good working atmosphere, critics u. a. on the part of Vereinigung Cockpit that the company systematically prevents the establishment of works councils . The change of the company form from the German GmbH to the PLC according to British law was seen as a tactical move to curtail workers' rights. On August 7, 2007, Air Berlin agreed for the first time on collective agreements for the 805 pilots and 1,442 flight attendants with the Cockpit Association and ver.di.
  • Air Berlin has repeatedly come under criticism for the large number of unprocessed customer inquiries. Die Welt reported that in the autumn of 2012 around 65,000 unanswered inquiries had accumulated. In August 2013 there were still 30,000 unprocessed inquiries or complaints. Experts classified the backwater as "extraordinary extent". Air Berlin has driven a conscious reduction in the level of service for reasons of cost. Sometimes old cases would be closed without an answer. Other passengers received flat-rate compensation (75 euros in cash, 120 euros flight voucher or 10,000 award miles) so that the case would be closed as quickly as possible.

See also

literature

  • Wolfgang Mendorf: Deutsche Airlines and their aircraft since 1970 , Podszun, Brilon 2016, ISBN 978-3-86133-824-6 , pp. 14-21
  • The Air Berlin affair . Best-Off-Verlag, Regensburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-96133-052-2
  • Air Berlin: The bear skin dispute. In: Aero international No. 10/2017, pp. 16–23

Web links

Commons : Air Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Air Berlin  - in the news

Individual evidence

  1. Imprint. ( Memento from September 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, accessed on February 28, 2015.
  2. Change in the Air Berlin cockpit . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 30, 2015, accessed on January 31, 2015.
  3. Last aircraft takes off: Air Berlin stops flight operations . Daily News. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  4. No restart: Belair is broke | aeroTELEGRAPH . In: aeroTELEGRAPH . August 15, 2018 ( aerotelegraph.com [accessed August 15, 2018]).
  5. Stefan Eiselin: From the flagship airline to a crisis. In: Aerotelegraph , August 15, 2017, accessed on August 18, 2017 (former title: This is how Air Berlin got big ).
  6. Michael Nicholson: Air Berlin: born out of a political situation . In: Airliners , May / June 2009. 
  7. Air Berlin climbing. In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 6, 1998, accessed November 16, 2013 .
  8. Boeing customer Air Berlin. In: Der Tagesspiegel. April 3, 1998, accessed November 16, 2013 .
  9. a b ITB 2001: Air Berlin increases sales. In: Der Tagesspiegel. March 4, 2001, Retrieved November 16, 2013 .
  10. Air Berlin flies to London from 39 euros. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 6, 2002, accessed November 16, 2013 .
  11. We are currently exceeding our goals. In: Der Tagesspiegel. May 2, 2006, accessed February 28, 2015 .
  12. Investor Facts on the Shareholders. In: Börsen-Zeitung . Retrieved February 16, 2017 .
  13. Air Berlin boss Joachim Hunold does not expect falling prices for long-haul flights. In: Finanznachrichten.de . April 22, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2017 .
  14. Cartel office skeptical about LTU takeover. ( Memento from July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: Financial Times Deutschland . May 21, 2007.
  15. ^ Clear the way for airberlin.com - Air Berlin stake in Belair. Air Berlin, August 21, 2007, archived from the original on June 25, 2012 ; accessed on February 16, 2017 .
  16. Hotel plan: Air Berlin expands engagement in Switzerland: New shareholder structure for Belair & expansion of the fleet and new routes from Switzerland , press release of October 29, 2009 with explanation of the holding structure: Air Berlin transferred an option agreed in 2007 to the remaining one 51% share in Belair, a Swiss foundation; this foundation thus became the new owner of the 51% of Belair by exercising the option against the previous shareholder Hotelplan. Air Berlin's direct stake in Belair remained unchanged at 49%, with Air Berlin being granted an option to acquire the 51%, which requires effective control and the possibility of consolidation.
  17. TUI Travel PLC Group company takes a 9.9% stake in Air Berlin PLC. Air Berlin, October 7th, 2009, archived from the original on October 6th, 2015 ; accessed on February 16, 2017 .
  18. Air Berlin takes over TUIfly city business. Focus , September 8, 2009, accessed February 16, 2017 .
  19. ^ Bundeskartellamt approves takeover of TUIfly City flight business by Air Berlin. (PDF file; 76 kB) TUIfly, September 8, 2009, accessed on February 16, 2017 .
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  25. airberlin and British Airways: Codeshare agreement from July. ( Memento of July 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, press release, June 15, 2011.
  26. airberlin and Iberia start cooperation agreements. ( Memento of June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, press release, July 8, 2011.
  27. airberlin and Malév start codeshare flights. ( Memento of June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, press release, October 7, 2011.
  28. Air Berlin and Royal Jordanian start code sharing . In: airliners.de . October 31, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
  29. Intersky cooperates with Air Berlin . schwaebische.de, August 17, 2011.
  30. Air Berlin joins Oneworld. In: airliners.de. March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2012 .
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  34. link text. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012 ; accessed on March 16, 2019 . airberlin.com, press release, April 13, 2011.
  35. First flight from Berlin to New York officially opened ( memento from June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, press release, May 1, 2011.
  36. fvw.de - Air Berlin: Cooperation with Meridiana Fly
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  39. Air Berlin closes stations in Erfurt and Dortmund . airliners.de, December 7, 2011.
  40. Airline is being redesigned . fvw.de, September 21, 2011.
  41. Etihad joins Air Berlin . In: Handelsblatt , December 19, 2011.
  42. ^ The consequences of the Etihad-Berlin deal ( Memento from January 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ftd.de, December 19, 2011.
  43. Premium Airline Partner Etihad Airways . airberlin.con. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Retrieved on September 9, 2012.
  44. airberlin first flight from Berlin to Abu Dhabi . ( Memento from June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, January 15, 2012.
  45. airberlin and Etihad Airways link frequent flyer programs . ( Memento from January 16, 2013 in the archive.today web archive ) airberlin.com, January 16, 2012.
  46. Etihad Airways and airberlin offer a joint bonus program for SMEs ( Memento from June 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) airberlin.com, June 11, 2012.
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  48. Air Berlin makes a special prize . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 22, 2012, accessed on April 3, 2015.
  49. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer new CEO of airberlin . airberlingroup.com, press release, January 7, 2013.
  50. Air Berlin demands that employees waive their wages . rp-online.de, January 19, 2013.
  51. Air Berlin cancels the tourism hub in Nuremberg . airliners.de, March 28, 2013.
  52. airberlin countdown: first flight Berlin-Chicago starts in 111 days . airberlingroup.com, press release, December 2, 2012.
  53. ch-aviation - Air Berlin Turkey to be closed down by end of March, March 7, 2013 (English)
  54. Air Berlin only owns ten planes . austrianaviation.net, August 16, 2013.
  55. Air Berlin is deeply in crisis . In: Zeit Online , April 28, 2014, accessed on August 18, 2017.
  56. Air Berlin cancels Boeing orders . airliners.de, September 26, 2014.
  57. Air Berlin has to fly alone . tagesschau .de, October 10, 2014.
  58. Challenge to the Star Alliance: Etihad founds its own alliance . aerotelegraph.com, October 8, 2014.
  59. Air Berlin cuts another 200 jobs . In: Der Standard , October 27, 2014, accessed November 3, 2014.
  60. ^ Air Berlin boss Prock-Schauer resigns . In: Der Standard , November 3, 2014, accessed November 3, 2014.
  61. ^ Urgent application from Etihad Airways unsuccessful . Administrative Court of Braunschweig , December 29, 2015, accessed on December 30, 2015.
  62. Etihad wants to develop Air Berlin into a "strong alternative to Lufthansa" . airliners.de, January 15, 2016, accessed on January 17, 2016.
  63. Air Berlin withdraws from Russia . In: Russia Beyond the Headlines , October 15, 2015, accessed November 16, 2015.
  64. Air Berlin renounces the Mallorca hub . In: Mallorca Zeitung , November 13, 2015, accessed on November 15, 2015.
  65. Kevin P. Hoffmann: The airline doesn't own a single airplane anymore . In: Der Tagesspiegel . July 10, 2016, accessed August 16, 2017.
  66. ^ A b Julia Schmitt, Desirée Backhaus: Air Berlin sells its last aircraft . In: Finance , July 11, 2016, accessed July 12, 2016.
  67. Annual report 2016 . Air Berlin PLC, p. 24: “airberlin completed the standardization process with the last Boeing flight on October 28, 2016. Only the 14 Boeing 737s currently operated by TUIfly under a wet lease agreement still fly for the airberlin group. "
  68. Air Berlin will soon be at the end of its line . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 10, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2016.
  69. Air Berlin is to be halved . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 25, 2016, accessed on October 1, 2016.
  70. An airline for the holidays . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , October 6, 2016.
  71. Lufthansa concludes letter of intent on wet lease cooperation between Eurowings and Air Berlin ( memento from February 11, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) lufthansagroup.com, September 28, 2016, accessed on January 15, 2017.
  72. Far-reaching restructuring of the Air Berlin Group . airberlin.com, September 28, 2016, accessed on September 28, 2016.
  73. Berlin's governor speaks of "bitter news" - Air Berlin is cutting jobs and drastically shrinking its fleet . Archived from the original on September 29, 2016 ; accessed on September 16, 2016 .
  74. Aircraft maintenance: Air Berlin wants to cut almost 500 jobs nationwide . ( Memento from October 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, October 14, 2016.
  75. Insolvent Air Berlin was planning a new logo. December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2017 .
  76. Gerhard Hegmann: Air Berlin no longer flies to Mallorca. In: welt.de. December 5, 2016, accessed December 12, 2016 .
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  82. Charlottenburg District Court: Air Berlin applies for the opening of insolvency proceedings under self-administration (PM 47/2017) . The President of the Court of Appeal , press release, August 15, 2017, accessed on August 17, 2017.
  83. Decision in the insolvency proceedings over the assets d. Air Berlin PLC (PDF; 2.6MB) Charlottenburg district court . November 1, 2017. Archived from the original on November 15, 2017. Retrieved on November 14, 2017.
  84. Air Berlin files for bankruptcy - Federal government grants credit . Welt Online, August 15, 2017.
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  87. Report on the approval of the bridging loan on spiegel-online. September 4, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2017 .
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  89. Insolvent airline: Easyjet takes over parts of Air Berlin . tagesschau.de. Accessed October 28, 2017.
  90. Berliner Zeitung
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  94. No silent Air Berlin farewell . airliners.de. October 13, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  95. Pilots on the last Air Berlin flight fly together again . airliners.de. August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  96. Air Berlin - Insolvency opens Handelsblatt online, November 1, 2017
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  103. Decision to repeal self-administration . Flöther & Wissing insolvency administration. January 17, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  104. Nikolaus Doll: Air Berlin: Rescue plan for insolvent airline costs taxpayers 70 million euros. In: welt.de . August 8, 2018, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  105. ^ Katja Riedel, Sebastian Pittelkow: Law of the taxpayer. Government should publish reports on Air Berlin bankruptcy, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 2, 2018 (Economy Department)
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