Niki aviation

Niki Luftfahrt GmbH
IATA code :	HG
ICAO code :	NLY
Call sign :	FLYNIKI
Founding:	2003
Operation stopped:	2017
Seat:	Vienna , Austria
Home airport :	Vienna Airport
Company form:	GmbH
IATA prefix code :	411
Management:	Oliver Lackmann
Number of employees:	840 (2017)
Sales:	€ 455.7 million (2014)
Passenger volume:	4.9 million (2014)
Alliance :	last: none before: Oneworld and Etihad Airways Partners
Fleet size:	32
Aims:	National and international
Website:	www.flyniki.com
Niki Luftfahrt GmbH ceased operations in 2017. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

The Niki Luftfahrt GmbH , briefly in the proper spelling NIKI was an Austrian airline based in Vienna and based on the Vienna airport . The subsidiary of the insolvent Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy itself when a planned takeover by Deutsche Lufthansa did not materialize due to competition concerns from the EU Commission. Flight operations ceased on December 14, 2017.

history

Niki's headquarters at Vienna Airport

founding

The Niki Luftfahrt GmbH was created from Aero Lloyd Austria GmbH, as a result of the insolvency of the German parent company Aero Lloyd in November 2003 by Niki Lauda has acquired a majority stake and first under the provisional name flyniki was performed.

Takeover by Air Berlin

An Airbus A320 in 2015 in Air Berlin livery. Belonging to Niki is the Austrian air vehicle registration and a sticker operated by Niki recognizable

In January 2004 Air Berlin took over 24% of the company, in July 2010 it increased its stake to 49.9%. The majority of 50.1% of the shares was held by NL Holding GmbH until November 2011 , which in turn is 100% owned by the Lauda private foundation . In connection with the increase in the stake, Air Berlin granted the private foundation a loan of EUR 40.5 million. The Lauda private foundation had the option to repay the loan within three years in cash or by transferring the shares in Niki Luftfahrt GmbH (50.1%).

In November 2011 NL Holding GmbH was merged with NL AB Beteiligungs GmbH , which is 50.2% owned by NIKI Privatstiftung and 49.8% by Gehuba Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH , which in turn is wholly owned by Air Berlin. The NIKI private foundation transfers all of its profits to Gehuba through a profit participation agreement. Lauda himself announced on November 8, 2011 that he would step down from the board of Niki. He was awarded a position on the Board of Directors of Air Berlin, but left there in January 2013.

From March 20, 2012 until Air Berlin ceased operations on October 28, 2017, Niki was connected to the Oneworld Alliance via Air Berlin .

Planned restructuring and bankruptcy

In December 2016, Air Berlin announced the sale of the 49.8% Niki stake held directly to Etihad Airways for 300 million euros . From the 2017 summer flight schedule, all of Air Berlin's European tourist routes were transferred to Niki, who received additional aircraft from Air Berlin. In a second step, Etihad and TUI planned a new European holiday airline based on Niki aircraft and TUIfly aircraft that flew for Air Berlin. The talks on including TUIfly were broken off in June 2017 without any result.

On August 15, 2017, Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy in self-administration at the Berlin-Charlottenburg district court . At this point in time, Etihad's antitrust approval of the purchase was still pending. At works meetings at the headquarters in Vienna and Düsseldorf, the Niki works council announced that the operational business and the salaries of the employees could be financed until the end of August. In order to maintain flight operations until the Air Berlin Group is broken up, the Austrian government announced its support in the form of bridge financing. 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. Due to the negative attitude of the EU Commission , Lufthansa withdrew its takeover offer on December 13, 2017. On the same day, the company filed for bankruptcy at the Charlottenburg district court and ceased operations. As the last machine, the OE-LOG ended on 14 December at 12:14 as a flight HG2601 from Tenerife Coming on the Vienna airport .

Failed takeover by IAG

After the failed takeover by Deutsche Lufthansa, the European aviation group IAG announced on December 29, 2017 that it would take over parts of Niki for EUR 36.5 million, subject to antitrust approvals. 20 million euros of this should go to Niki's creditors, and a further 16.5 million euros to cover ongoing financial requirements. IAG wanted to take over the naming rights to Niki, 15 of the 21 Airbus A320 planes leased by Niki, as well as the landing rights at the airports in Vienna , Düsseldorf , Munich , Palma de Mallorca and Zurich . The company itself would not have been taken over, instead a new subsidiary of Vueling Airlines should be founded in Austria. Of the approximately 1000 Niki employees, at least 750 would have been taken on. Most recently, Niki founder Niki Lauda was in the running alongside IAG, after up to six bidders had previously offered.

Takeover by Laudamotion

On January 8, the Berlin Regional Court ruled after a lawsuit from an Austrian debt collection service provider for passenger rights that the jurisdiction for the insolvency lay not with the Charlottenburg Local Court but in Austria. As a result, new main proceedings were opened at the Korneuburg Regional Court on January 12th and a new insolvency administrator was appointed. Both IAG and the last defeated bidders were able to submit a new offer by January 19. Laudamotion GmbH, founded by Niki Lauda, ​​also made use of this and was awarded the contract for the takeover on January 23, 2018. Laudamotion acquired the entire assets of Niki, in particular the take-off and landing rights and the remaining staff. It does not include the rights to the Niki brand , which are owned by NL AB Beteiligungs GmbH and are to be sold as part of the Air Berlin insolvency estate.

Destinations

Niki mainly flew from Austrian airports to holiday destinations around the Mediterranean . From March 2017 until the end of operations, Niki also flew from German and Swiss airports that were previously served by Air Berlin .

fleet

Embraer 190 in the livery that was used until 2012

As of December 2017, the Niki Luftfahrt fleet consisted of 32 aircraft with an average age of 9.1 years:

Aircraft type	active	ordered	Remarks
Airbus A320-200	10		6 inactive
Airbus A321-200	14th		1 inactive
Boeing 737-700	01		operated by TUIfly ; with winglets
Boeing 737-800	07th		operated by TUIfly ; with winglets
total	32	-

In the summer of 2013 Air Berlin decided to transfer three Embraer 190s from Niki to its German sister airline Walter . For the 2013/2014 winter flight schedule, however, these were reintegrated into the Niki fleet. Between December 2014 and June 2015, the Embraer were finally phased out and handed over to Helvetic .

Appearance

Airbus A321-200 in the livery used from the beginning of 2004 to the end of 2005

When the company was founded in 2003, the aircraft were painted in a single color and had a blue and red flyniki logo on the front fuselage. The current logo was introduced at the beginning of 2004 and the aircraft were painted with two red stripes on the white fuselage. In autumn 2005 a new livery was introduced, the machines were painted silver with a stylized bow tie on the front fuselage. From autumn 2012 the design of the fleet was adapted to the red and white appearance of the parent company Air Berlin when it was repainted, only the oval logo was retained on some aircraft.

Aircraft names

Niki's planes were named after dance styles and musical genres . For example, one of the Embraer 190s was named Bossa Nova and an Airbus A321-200 Heavy Metal .

See also

• List of airlines

Web links

Commons : Niki  - collection of images

• Web presence of Niki Niki World

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Air Berlin subsidiary Niki gets new managing director. In: airliners.de. April 5, 2016, accessed June 7, 2016 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} flyniki.com - About us ( Memento from August 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on August 19, 2019
3. ↑ Air Berlin subsidiary Niki flies in higher profit , trend.at from November 11, 2015, accessed on April 14, 2017
4. ↑ Economy from within - Air Berlin takes action at NIKI. (No longer available online.) April 26, 2015, archived from the original ; accessed on November 10, 2019 . 
5. ↑ [1] "Lufthansa said that by withdrawing the takeover offer for Niki, the EU Commission would be making further concessions in order to be able to take over other parts of Air Berlin." ZEIT Online, December 13, 2017
6. ↑ Air Berlin holds 49.9 percent of Flyniki Standard from July 5, 2010, accessed on November 8, 2011
7. ↑ ^{a b} Decision in the proceedings on the application to open main insolvency proceedings for NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH under Austrian law, Az 36n IN 6 / .33117 (PDF) Charlottenburg District Court . December 13, 2017. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved on November 10, 2019.
8. ^ Commercial register matter: NL AB Beteiligungs GmbH . Firmenmonitor.at. December 9, 2011. Retrieved January 16, 2018.
9. ↑ airliners.de - Air Berlin takes over Niki completely November 8, 2011
10. ↑ nachrichten.at - Niki Lauda now also joined the Air Berlin Supervisory Board on January 3, 2013
11. ↑ airberlin to leave oneworld on October 28th - oneworld news. Retrieved October 29, 2017 . 
12. ↑ Air Berlin separates from Niki , accessed on December 6, 2016
13. ↑ airberlin and NIKI present new route network at the ITB . Air Berlin Investor Relations. March 8, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2017.
14. ^ Niki deal: Etihad breaks off talks with Tui. airliners.de, accessed on July 4, 2017 . 
15. ↑ STANDARD Verlagsgesellschaft mbH: SPÖ wants to tighten the safety net for Niki . In: derStandard.at . ( derstandard.at [accessed on August 18, 2017]).
16. ↑ Lufthansa and Air Berlin seal deal . tagesschau.de. Accessed October 12, 2017.
17. ↑ Niki takeover by Lufthansa failed . Frankfurter Allgemeine . December 13, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
18. ↑ Airline Niki is insolvent world online, December 13th 2017
19. ↑ The hanging game for Niki customers continues . MDR . December 30, 202017. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
20. ↑ Niki goes to British Airways parent company IAG . In: tagesschau.de. Accessed December 30, 2017.
21. ↑ Airline is to merge into Vueling in ORF of December 30, 2017, accessed on December 31, 2017.
22. ↑ Niki: Lauda from the race in Die Presse on December 28, 2017, accessed on December 31, 2017.
23. ↑ Niki deal threatens to collapse again . Handelsblatt . January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
24. ↑ ^{a b} Niki sale is to be rolled out again . Handelsblatt . January 12, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
25. ↑ Airline Niki goes to founder Niki Lauda . n-tv . January 23, 2018. Accessed January 23, 2018.
26. ↑ ^{a b} Sale of insolvent Niki to Laudamotion completed . Salzburg news . February 28, 2018. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
27. ↑ ch-aviation: Niki - Airline Information (English), accessed on December 13, 2017
28. ↑ airliners.de - Fleet shift: Niki brings Embraer 190 back from LGW , August 1st, 2013
29. ^ Austrian Wings - Aus für Embraer at NIKI , accessed October 6, 2015
30. ↑ orf.at message from May 7, 2012