Three Airbus A320s will be stationed at Berlin Brandenburg from April, while in May the Lufthansa-owned carrier intends to begin flying between the UK and Mallorca.
British low-cost carrier easyJet has agreed to acquire parts of Air Berlin for €40m on the same day as the insolvent German airline operated its final flight.
IAG chief executive Willie Walsh has confirmed that the group has made an offer for parts of troubled Air Berlin, but he expects Lufthansa to win the race for the carrier.
A loan of up to €150m from the German government has been approved by the European Commission, ensuring Air Berlin will continue to operate over the coming months.
Air Berlin has filed for bankruptcy protection but flights will continue to operate as rescue talks with Lufthansa and the German government take place.
Air Berlin’s loss is the Irish carrier’s gain as their expansion in Germany reaches the business hub of Frankfurt. This follows Ryanair opening a base at Hamburg, stationing two aircraft at the airport.
Germany’s second biggest airline, Air Berlin, will downsize their current fleet by 40 aircraft. Eurowings will receive 35 aircraft, whereas Austrian Airlines will receive five.
An estimated 240,000 two-way passengers a year are currently flying between Europe and Fort Myers, according to MIDT data for 2014. The German market accounted for 54.4 percent of this demand ahead of the United Kingdom and Switzerland – the only other country markets to have annual flows of more than 10,000 passengers.
Etihad Airways, a minority shareholder in German carrier airberlin, will still be able to put its code on a number of the German carrier's routes, but the court ruling means a temporary injunction granted last November, permitting the two airlines to continue all their codeshare flights through January 15, 2016 will end on that date.
The decision of three major European operators to depart the AEA shows the dispute between Europe and the Gulf carriers is clearly heating up. It is a very rare move that a key member of an EU trade association withdraws, but for three of its membership to leave shows significant concern at its abilities to fulfil its role.
The new route strategy into Italy will see airberlin introduce a new daily service from Stuttgart to Rome from March 29, 2015, operated by an Airbus A320, as well as a 17 times weekly, up to three times daily link from Stuttgart to Milan Linate from May 2015, flown by a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400. In addition, starting the same month, airberlin will expand its service on the existing Stuttgart to Venice route to a daily summer schedule.
To mark the 25th anniversary since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, airberlin offered passengers three sightseeing flights with special views of the WALL OF LIGHT.
airberlin is already the prominent carrier serving Sylt Airport and in 2013 had a 79.7 per cent share of capacity from the facility, also known as Westerland, a well-known part of the municipality of Sylt. This year, following a reduction in Lufthansa’s schedule to the island, the airberlin share has grown to 85.8 per cent.
The oneworld alliance member will launch a daily service between Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi from December 1, 2014 using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The service, which remains subject to government and regulatory approvals will be airberlin’s sole medium-haul link from Stuttgart, a market it currently mainly links to Mediterranean leisure destinations.
