Air Berlin

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Air Berlin (FSE: [AB1]) (IATA: AB, ICAO: BER, and Callsign: Air Berlin) is a major low-cost airline based in Berlin, Germany. It operates scheduled services from a range of European airports. The airline carried over 12 million passengers in 2004.

Contents

1 History
2 Destinations
3 New routes
4 Fleet
5 External links

History

After World War Two until October 1990 the only aircraft allowed to land in West Berlin were those from Allied powers. As a result, "Air Berlin Inc." was formed in Oregon, USA by a former Pan Am captain.

Initial charter flights began in 1979 with a Boeing 707 to Palma de Mallorca. Even today, the so called Majorca Shuttle to Germany's favorite holiday island is one of Air Berlin's busiest routes and Air Berlin is also the biggest airline on Mallorca. Palma de Mallorca is also used a hub with about a dozen flights from/to Germany connecting to destinations in the Iberian Peninsula.

After German reunification in 1990, German investors took over the majority of shares and the airline was registered under German law and renamed Air Berlin. Holiday charter flights, which previously were restricted to Berlin, were now flown from other German airports, including Mönchengladbach, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Bremen, Münster, Nürnberg and Hamburg. Due to airline deregulation in the European Union these flights are now operated as scheduled flights. The airline started scheduled flights to European business capitals, such as London, Zurich, Vienna and Barcelona, in the late 1990s using some of its aircraft for these so called "City Shuttles" in the early morning/late evening and using these same aircraft to serve popular tourist destinations during the middle of the day.

By the end of 1981 the fleet had been changed to the Boeing 737. In 2003, the whole fleet consisted of this aircraft type, with some model -400, mostly model -800, and 3 leased BAe 146 aircraft. Air Berlin also became Germany's second largest airline after Lufthansa.

In January 2004, Air Berlin announced cooperation with former Formula One driver Niki Lauda's newly founded airline Niki. The two airlines considered their cooperation a "low fares alliance". Air Berlin now holds 24% of Lauda's enterprise. In November 2004 Air Berlin and its Austrian partner Fly Niki announced the joint purchase of 110 Airbus A320s. A firm order for 70 aircraft has been placed, 60 of which will be delivered to Air Berlin and 10 to FlyNiki. They have an option to purchase a further 40 aircraft. Delivery of the planes is expected to start in September 2005.

Air Berlin is publicly traded (ticker symbol is AB1, ISIN is GB00B128C026). Freefloat is about 62% and the remainder is held by the original (pre-IPO) shareholders. A full breakdown is provided at [Air Berlin's investor relations site].

Air Berlin's initial public offering (IPO), originally scheduled for 5 May 2006, was postponed until 11 May 2006. The company cited slow investor demand related to rising fuel costs and other market pressures. The initial share-price range was reduced from 15.0-17.5 Euros to a range of 11.5-14.5 Euros, before finally opening at 12.0 Euros. 42.5 million shares were sold in the IPO. Of this, 19.6 million were new shares increasing capital in the company, and the remainder to replayed loans made by the original shareholders and invested in the company earlier in 2006. In total, the company now claims to have over 400 million euros in the bank, to be used to fund further expansion, including aircraft purchases.

Destinations

New routes

It will inaugurate nonstop service as follows :

- Zurich-Las Palmas /Zurich-Tenerife on November 4th, 2006: a weekly flight using an Airbus A320.

It will increase the frequency of flights :

- Zurich-Hamburg from 2 to 3 a day on October 28th.It uses Airbus 319 and Airbus A320 on the route and there is a reduced frequency on weekends. - Zurich-Berlin Tegel from 3 to 4 a day on October 28th. It uses Airbus 319, Airbus A320, Boeing 737-700 and Fokker 100 on the route and there is a reduced frequency on weekends.

Fleet

The Air Berlin fleet consists of the following aircraft (at July 2006):

^{* Air Berlin are taking 60 of a 70 A320-200 joint purchase with Niki

The average Air Berlin fleet age is 5.8 years old in July 2006.

External links
[Air Berlin]
[Air Berlin Fleet]
[Air Berlin Passenger Opinions]
[Photos of Air Berlin aircraft]
[Repricing of IPO]

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