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Air Berlin (Germany)
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| Founded | 1978 (as Air Berlin USA) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | ||||
| Frequent-flyer program | topbonus | |||
| Alliance | Oneworld | |||
| Subsidiaries | ||||
| Fleet size | 155 | |||
| Destinations | 174 | |||
| Company slogan | Your Airline. | |||
| Headquarters | Airport Bureau Center Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany |
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| Key people | Wolfgang Prock-Schauer (President and CEO) | |||
| Revenue | 4.31 billion (2012)[1] | |||
| Operating income | -247 million (2011)[2] | |||
| Net income | -271 million (2011)[2] | |||
| Total assets | 2.263 billion (2011)[2] | |||
| Total equity | 253 million (2011)[2] | |||
| Employees | 9,284 (12/2012)[2] | |||
| Website | www.airberlin.com | |||
Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (stylized as airberlin or airberlin.com) is Germany's second largest airline, after Lufthansa, and Europe's seventh largest airline in terms of passengers.[3] It operates an extensive network including holiday destinations in the Mediterranean region, the Canary Islands and North Africa as well as intercontinental destinations in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and the Americas. The airline is a member of the Oneworld alliance, its Austrian subsidiary NIKI is an affiliate member of Oneworld.
Air Berlin concentrates on serving major German and European cities to attract business traffic. A total of 25 German cities are served, more than any other airline. Its hubs are Berlin-Tegel Airport[4] and Düsseldorf Airport.
The airline is headquartered at the Airport Bureau Center in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin.[5] Air Berlin's parent company, airberlin group or Air Berlin GmbH, is publicly traded (FSE: AB1, ISIN is GB00B128C026).[6] In May 2012, it had 9,284 employees.[2] The airline (including subsidiaries) carried 33.3 million passengers in 2012.[7]
Contents |
History [edit]
1978-1989: First years of air charter operations [edit]
In 1978, former Pan Am pilot Kim Lundgren formed Air Berlin as a US supplemental carrier[nb 1] under the name Air Berlin, Inc. in Oregon, USA, trading as Air Berlin USA and headquartered in Miami, Florida.[8] That the airline was founded in the United States rather than in Germany was due to West Berlin's special legal status during the Cold War era; during that time, all air traffic to and from the city was restricted to airlines of the victorious powers of World War II. In addition, all flight-deck crew (pilots, flight engineers and navigators) on flights through the Allied air corridors had to be citizens of the United States, United Kingdom, France or the Soviet Union.[9]
Air Berlin's first revenue flight (from Berlin to Palma de Mallorca) took place on 28 April 1979, with its first aircraft being a Boeing 707-320, which had been acquired from TWA.[10] Operating from Berlin-Tegel Airport, the airline was assigned to fulfill lucrative charter contracts operating a series of short to medium-haul IT charter flights to the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands on behalf of Berliner Flug Ring, at that time West Berlin's leading package tour operator.[11] Air Berlin had taken over this contract from Aeroamerica, another US supplemental carrier, which was based at Berlin Tegel from 1974 to 1979.[11] Additionally, Air Berlin operated weekly scheduled service from Tegel via Brussels to Orlando, during a brief period in the early 1980s.[12]
In the spring of 1981, Air Berlin's original two Boeing 707 aircraft were replaced by the more modern Boeing 737-200 Adv type, which was more appropriate for the airline's IT operations from Berlin to the Mediterranean region, especially to Majorca (where it is now the largest airline operating there).[13]
In 1985, Air Berlin moved its headquarters to Berlin.[14] Air Berlin transitioned to a fleet entirely composed of brand-new Boeing 737-300 and 737-400 aircraft during the late 1980s.[15] This coincided with the introduction of a new livery, which remained relatively unchanged until 2007.[15]
1990-1999: Growth after German reunification [edit]
On 2 October 1990, the eve of Germany's reunification (which led to the end of Berlin's special status), the airline was renamed Air Berlin, and German investors acquired a majority stake in the company with Joachim Hunold, a former LTU manager, becoming CEO, a position he held until 2011. Some time later, on 16 April 1991, the airline was re-registered under German law and renamed Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG.[16][16][17] Air Berlin joined IATA, the company also moved away from charters and towards scheduled flights, including important European business centres (which had been served since 1997).
2000-2006: Becoming Germanys second largest airline [edit]
In November 2001, when taking delivery of a brand new Boeing 737-800 fitted with winglets, Air Berlin managed to set a record. The aircraft with the registration code D-ABBC flew the 8,345 kilometres non-stop from Seattle (BFI), USA to Berlin (TXL), Germany in 9 hours 10 minutes.
In January 2004, Air Berlin announced it would cooperate with Niki, a Vienna-based airline.[16] As part of the deal, Air Berlin took a 24% stake in Niki.
In 2005, a partnership agreement with Germania was signed. It saw Air Berlin leasing some of Germania's aircraft and crew, and Germania became almost exclusively a charter airline. Germania was to have been associated with Air Berlin under a management contract. However, the contract was not signed. At the beginning of March 2008 Germanias joint owners could not reach agreement about the takeover by Air Berlin, so Germania remained an independent airline. A joint Air Berlin/Germania subsidiary dubbed Air Zürich and planned to be based at Zurich Airport was proposed in 2005, but did not materialize.[18]
In 2006, Air Berlin successfully completed an initial public offering (IPO) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Originally scheduled for 5 May 2006, it was postponed until 11 May 2006. The company cited recent rises in fuel costs and other market pressures leading to limited of investor demand and reduced the initial share-price range from 15.017.5 euros to 11.514.5 euros and the stock opened at 12.0, selling a total of 42.5 million shares. Of these, 19.6 million were new shares increasing capital in the company, and the remainder to repay loans extended by the original shareholders and invested in the company earlier in 2006. After the IPO, the company claimed to have over 400 million euros in cash to fund further expansion, including aircraft purchases.[19]
In August 2006, Air Berlin announced that it had acquired 100% of the shares in German domestic airline dba.[20] Flight operations at dba were continued as a fully owned subsidiary of Air Berlin until 14 November 2008, when the dba brand was discontinued due to staff strikes. (dba staff were subsequently offered positions with Air Berlin).
On 28 November 2006, aircraft manufacturer Boeing announced an Air Berlin order of 60 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, as well as for 15 aircraft of the smaller Boeing 737-700 variant. The combined value of these 75 airplanes would be 5.1 billion dollars at then list prices. Delivery started in 2007.[21] All of these aircraft will be equipped with blended winglets, which significantly improve fuel efficiency.
2007-2009: Takeovers and expansion [edit]
In March 2007, Air Berlin took over German leisure airline LTU, thereby gaining access to the long-haul market and becoming the fourth largest airline group in Europe in terms of passenger traffic. This deal lead to the introduction of Airbus A321 and Airbus A330 aircraft into the Air Berlin fleet. The merger of the LTU operations, aircraft and crew was completed on 1 May 2009, when the LTU brand was dicontinued.
On 7 July 2007, Air Berlin announced an order for 25 modern Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner longhaul aircraft, with further options and purchase rights.[22] Three additional aircraft of this type will be leased from ILFC.
On 21 August 2007, Air Berlin acquired a 49 percent shareholding in Swiss charter airline Belair, the remainder being owned by tour operator Hotelplan.[23] Following the deal, Belair's longhaul business was shut down, and the fleet replaced by Airbus A320 family aircraft operating scheduled flights on behalf of Air Berlin as well as charter flights for Hotelplan.
On 20 September 2007, Air Berlin announced it intended to buy its direct competitor Condor in a deal that saw Condor's owner, the Thomas Cook Group, taking a 30% stake in Air Berlin.[24] A variety of considerations, including the rapidly increasing price of jet fuel, led to the abandonment of the deal in July 2008.
In January 2008 Air Berlin introduced a new logo together with a new corporate design. The logo is a white oval shape on a red background (to suggest an aircraft window) where the letter a is depicted by a white circle and two white stylised wings. The Air Berlin text element is now in lower case and written as one word. Sometimes the slogan Your Airline also features as part of the logo.[25]
In June 2008, CEO Joachim Hunold offended Catalan language speakers, when he claimed [26] in an article included in Air Berlin's inflight magazine that the government of the Balearic Islands was trying to impose the use of Catalan on Air Berlin flights from and to Majorca. He claimed that Air Berlin was an international airline and therefore would not have to use Catalan. Hunold went on to criticise the language policy in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, claiming that at the time many children could not speak any Spanish.[27] The Balearic Islands' socialist President, Francesc Antich, explained that his government had simply sent a letter to encourage airlines operating in the Balearic Islands to include Catalan among the languages used for onboard announcements.[28]
On 18 June of the same year, Air Berlin announced that it would reduce its long-haul services by 13 percent, as well as cut 10 percent of services in the domestic market in an effort to increase profitability.[29]
In September 2008, Air Berlin confirmed merger talks with competitor TUIfly, but added to this message the hint to speak "with all". Air Berlin has already been flying until 2007 for many TUIfly flights in code-sharing process. End of March 2009, Air Berlin PLC and TUI Travel PLC sealed for their German flight business a long-term strategic alliance. A cross ownership of the two companies originally respectively 19.9% was notified to the Bundeskartellamt for approval. After concerns of the Bundeskartellamt this cross ownership has not been implemented. Instead, the TUI Travel PLC took over a subsidiary of a capital increase in October 2009, a 9.9% stake in Air Berlin PLC.[30]
In January 2009 Air Berlin started a co-operation with Hainan Airlines, Chinas fourth-largest airline. Both airlines offer jointly market flights between Berlin and Beijing. The code-share flights are sold on a reciprocal basis and operated under the relevant airlines own flight number.[31]
At the end of March 2009, a strategic partnership agreement with TUI Travel was signed, which is based on a cross ownership of Air Berlin and its direct competitor TUIfly each purchases 19.9 percent of the other's shares.[32] Following this deal, Air Berlin took over all German domestic TUIfly routes, as well as those to Italy, Croatia and Austria. Also, all of Tuifly's Boeing 737-700 aircraft were merged into Air Berlin's fleet. Further route shifts will see TUIfly abandoning all scheduled flights and relying exclusively on the charter business.[33]
In March 2009, the Turkish ESAS Holding A.S. bought approximately 15 per cent of the voting shares in Air Berlin, to which the German competition regulator had no objections.[34]
On 28 September 2009, Air Berlin announced it would cooperate with Pegasus Airlines, thus allowing its customers access to more destinations and flights to and within Turkey on a codeshare-like basis.[35]
Also in 2009, Air Berlin convoked Hartmut Mehdorn to the board of directors after his retirement at the Deutsche Bahn.[36]
In October 2009 Air Berlin entered into cooperation with Bangkok Airways. Air Berlin offers passengers the flights operated by Bangkok Airways under its own flight number.[37]
2010-2012: Further takeovers and alliances [edit]
| Company | Interest |
|---|---|
| airberlin technik GmbH | 100 % |
| Binoli Reiseplattform | 49 % |
| Belair | 100 % |
| Niki | 100 % |
In April 2010 Air Berlin expanded its codeshare arrangements with Russias S7 Airlines. The strategic cooperation between Air Berlin and S7 Airlines had been in place since October 2008. New services include codeshare flights via Moscow to destinations such as Irkutsk, Perm and Rostov.[38]
In July 2010, Air Berlin announced an increase in its shareholding in the Austrian airline Niki. Following the fulfilment of the required conditions, the agreements notarized on 17 February 2010 have been implemented. Air Berlin indirectly acquired 25.9% of the shares in Niki from the Privatstiftung Lauda (private Lauda foundation) and has thereby increased its current shareholding in Niki from 24% to 49.9%. In connection with the increase of its shareholding, Air Berlin will grant the private Lauda foundation a 40.5 million-euro loan. The private foundation has the option to repay the loan in three years with cash or through the transfer to the remaining 50.1% of Niki's shares.[39]
In July 2010, it was also announced that Air Berlin would be joining Oneworld, the global airline alliance.[40] In preparation for joining the alliance, Air Berlin has been offering flights under codeshare agreements with American Airlines and Finnair since its 2010/2011 winter schedule came into force. Its cooperation with American Airlines means that Air Berlin passengers gain access to the important American market whilst it also offers codeshare flights with Finnair to Helsinki and within Europe.[41]
Air Berlin founded Follow Me Entertainment GmbH in September 2010 as a joint venture with kick-media ag. This joint venture company has been formed for the individual marketing of image and sound media, books, games as well as events, concerts, tournaments and sponsoring.[42]
The foundations were laid for the first maintenance hangar at Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) on 21 March 2011. Air Berlin, which will use the hangar together with Germania when the airport is opened, has thus doubled the maintenance capacity of Air Berlin Technik at its Berlin site.[43]
On 1 April 2011 Air Berlin completed the full integration of LTU which it took over in August 2007. There is now only one flight schedule and all the technical services of the Air Berlin Group have been merged into a new company "airberlin technik GmbH".[44] Also in April 2011 Air Berlin underlined the importance of its Düsseldorf hub by creating a new position of "Regional Director North-Rhine Westphalia". With new routes, more frequent flights and additional long-haul flights, Air Berlin is expanding the flights it offers from Düsseldorf.[45]
On 15 June 2011, Air Berlin and British Airways reached a codeshare agreement covering selected flights within Europe, commencing from 5 July 2011. The agreement applies to flights to over 40 European destinations served by the two airlines.[46]
Founder and CEO Joachim Hunold resigned from his position on 1 September 2011 and handed over his office to the former CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, Hartmut Mehdorn, who led the company on an interim basis until January 2013. From January 2013 Wolfgang Prock-Schauer took over the position as CEO.[47]
Since September 2011 Air Berlin cooperates with the Italian airline Meridiana Fly, and is offering flights from 30 October 2011 together with Meridiana Fly from Italy to Germany to.[48]
In November 2011 a new brand has been launched, called Air Berlin Turkey. This product is the result of a cooperation between Air Berlin and Pegasus Airlines and will cover the charter market between Germany and Turkey. Pegasus Airlines is the largest private airline company in Turkey and is on the ESAS Holding AS with 16.5%[49] involved in Air Berlin.[50][51]
In the 3rd Quarter of 2011, the turnover of the company amounts to 1.4 billion Euro, representing an increase of 11%. However the operating profit decreases almost to 50%, which makes 97 million Euro. As a result of a new bond to raise additional capital to be acquired.[52] In November 2011, a marketing campaign has been launched as well as the preparations to join the oneworld airline alliance.[53]
In November 2011 Air Berlin took over the remaining 50.1% stake in NIKI in the repayment of a loan and is now the sole owner of the company. The brand name is to be retained, Niki Lauda is awarded a position on the board of Air Berlin.[54]
Air Berlin announced on 19 December 2011 that the Arabian airline Etihad Airways increases its share of 2.99 to 29.1% for 73 million euros. Thus Etihad Airways is the largest shareholder of the company.[55] As this means a economic relief for the financially troubled airline, Etihad will benefit from its European route network.[55] The combined route network of Etihad Airways and Air Berlin covers 239 destinations in 77 countries. From Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich a total of 42 flights a week to Abu Dhabi are available. Further connection flights to the Arabian Peninsula, Asia, Africa and Australia from Abu Dhabi are possible.[56]
On 2 February 2012 it was announced that Air Berlin will become a full member of the Oneworld Alliance on 20 March 2012. Austrian airline NIKI, which is also part of the Air Berlin group will on the same day also join Oneworld as an affiliate member.[57]
2012 [edit]
Since January 2012 Air Berlin flies seven times a week non-stop from Berlin to Abu Dhabi. The new service is also the kick off of the codeshare agreement between Air Berlin and Etihad Airways.[58] The cooperation of the frequent flyer programs topbonus and Ethiad Guest has been announced in March 2012.[59] In June 2012, the collaboration concluded with the bonus programs airberlin business points and Ethiad Airways Business Connect for SMBs.[60]
Since 6 February 2012 Air Berlin flies on a daily basis from Berlin to Budapest.[61]
On 20 March 2012, the announced entry into the airline alliance oneworld was officially completed.[62] The extended international network offers over 800 destinations in 150 countries.[63] At the same time when Air Berlin joins oneworld, the airline introduces the Platinum status for its frequent flyer program topbonus.[64]
In May 2012, Air Berlin, presented its new fare structure "Your Fare" in an effort to offer individual rates for all target groups. Bookings are available for the rates "Just Fly", "Fly Classic" and "FlyFlex" for flights from 1 July 2012.[65]
On 11 May 2012 Air Berlin opened its triweekly non-stop flight from Berlin to Los Angeles in the summer schedule.[66] Characterized by the network strategy, Air Berlin started to offer non-stop flights from March 2013 between Berlin and Chicago. Similarly, in May 2013, the supply of non-stop flights to New York JFK, Los Angeles and Miami will be expanded. Thus Air Berlin is offering daily flights from May 2013 from Dusseldorf to Miami and Los Angeles.[67]
On 18 December 2012 Air Berlin announced to outsource the topbonus frequent flyer program in the new topbonus Limited (Ltd.). Etihad Airways is the largest shareholder with a 70% share of the new company, while Air Berlin retained 30% share.[68]
Air Berlin announced the expansion of the existing codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways on 20 December 2012. This includes flights via Abu Dhabi to Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Nagoya. Since February 2013, Air Berlin is also offering more weekly flights in code share with Etihad Airways to Singapore and Brisbane.[69]
2013 [edit]
In early January 2013, the first Airbus A330-200 was introduced with a new business class which enables a fully flat position for the first time. The long-haul fleet of Air Berlin has already been modified with a business class of high quality in 2012.[70]
On 7 January 2013 Air Berlin announces its new CEO. The Austrian Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, former Chief Strategy and Planning Officer spelled Hartmut Mehdorn as Chief Excutive Officer, who has hold the position on an interim basis since September 2011.[71]
Airberlin offers from January 2013 a lot of new routes and strengthening both their hub in Berlin. In addition, frequencies of existing connections are going to be increased. On 28 January airberlin flies for the first time from Berlin to Sofia and Bucharest, and offers this connection on a daily basis from now on.[72]
Furthermore, Air Berlin flies from 28 February nonstop to Madrid. As part of strategic expansion in Central Europe since March, Air Berlin flies from Berlin to Warsaw three times daily[73] and has incrreased its number of flights from 23 March 2013 from Berlin to Krakow at the same time.[74]
With the addition of the new and so far only connection between Berlin and Chicago from 23 March 2013 Air Berlin uses the Chicago hub for connections within the United States. In light of the transfer of capacity and focusing on core markets, Air Berlin increased their frequencies to New York-JFK, Los Angeles and Miami. Coinciding seasonal non-stop flights to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Vancouver are canceled.[75]
In March 2013 Air Berlin announced the closure of it's seasonal hub for leisure destinations at Nuremberg Airport. Only ten direct routes will remain.[76]
Corporate affairs [edit]
Business trends [edit]
The key trends for Air Berlin Group (including Niki) over recent years are shown below (as at year ending 31 December):
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnover (m) | 863 | 1,034 | 1,215 | 1,575 | 2,537 | 3,401 | 3,240 | 3,850 | 4,227 | 4,312 |
| Profits (m) | 36.7 | 2.9 | 115.9 | 40.1 | 21.0 | 75.0 | 9.5 | 106.3 | 420.4 | 6.8 |
| Number of employees | 1,956 | 2,146 | 2,764 | 4,108 | 8,360 | 8,311 | 8,278 | 8,900 | 9,113 | 9.284 |
| Number of passengers (m) | 10.0 | 12.1 | 17.5 | 19.7 | 27.9 | 28.6 | 27.9 | 34.9 | 35.3 | 33.3 |
| Passenger load factor (%) | 76.7 | 79.5 | 75.2 | 75.3 | 77.2 | 78.4 | 77.3 | 76.5 | 78.2 | 79.8 |
| Number of aircraft (at year end) | 46 | 47 | 79 | 117 | 124 | 125 | 152 | 169 | 170 | 155 |
| Notes/sources | [77] | [78] | [79] | [80] | [81] | [82] | [83] |
Flight school [edit]
Air Berlin has been running its own pilot training scheme since 2007 in a joint venture with the TFC Käufer flight school. Trainees complete their commercial pilot training to the latest industry standards over a period of around 24 months. The Air Berlin flight school was the first flight school in Germany to be awarded a training licence by the German Department of Aviation for the new Multi-Crew Pilot Licence concept in February 2009.[84]
Technical services [edit]
airberlin technik, part of the airberlin group, is a certified EASA Part-145 maintenance organization with approximately 1200 employees providing services to both the aircraft operating within the airberlin group and customers throughout Europe. airberlin technik is recognized and approved by various National Airworthiness Authorities such as USA FAA-145, Canadian CAA-145, Aruba EASA-145, Federal Aviation Authority of Russia, GCAA, United Arab Emirates.[85]
Passenger services [edit]
In contrast to pure European low-cost carriers, Air Berlin offers free (at the point of consumption) in-flight snacks and drinks, as well as newspapers and magazines. Full hot meals are complimentary on long-haul flights. On all Air Berlin routes with a flight time of 60 minutes or longer, gourmet meals are offered, which are, according to the airline, created by chefs at "Sansibar", a famous restaurant on the island of Sylt. The airline also offers in-flight entertainment, assigned seating and guaranteed flight connections.[86] On flights operated by Airbus A330-200 aircraft, a dedicated business class section is offered.[87]
Frequent flyer programme [edit]
Like many other airlines, Air Berlin has a frequent flyer scheme. Air Berlin's frequent flyer program (called topbonus) is operated jointly with Niki. Points (miles) can be collected on all flights, and these can be redeemed later for free flights (award flights) or for an upgrade to business class. In addition to the entry-level "topbonus Card Classic" there are cards with Silver, Gold, and Platinum status, corresponding to oneworld ruby, sapphire, and emerald levels. A Service Card and a Credit Card, for which a charge is made, are also available.
Destinations [edit]
The airline operates an extensive semi-low-cost network including intercontinental destinations in the United States, the Caribbean and the South East Asia as well as holiday destinations in the Mediterranean region, the Canary Islands and North Africa, with a total of 150 scheduled destinations in 40 countries. Berlin and Dusseldorf are the key hubs of Air Berlin with offers of long-haul flights and connections within Europe.
[edit]
Air Berlin has codeshare agreements with the following airlines (as of February 2013); Oneworld members indicated as * :
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