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Air Berlin PLC, Germany’s second-largest airline, said Wednesday the number of passengers who traveled with it in April rose 6.5 percent to 2.24 million passengers, compared with 2.1 million passengers a year earlier.The airline’s capacity utilization rose by 4.5 percentage points to 78.8 percent, compared with 74.3 percent in April a year ago. Capacity utilization is a measure of how full airplanes are.

source: iht.com

Air Berlin today launched its eighth direct connection to Germany from Stansted with a new twice-daily service to Munich.

Flights to Munich will depart London Stansted at 8.20 am and 7.15 pm Monday to Friday; with single daily departures on Saturday’s and Sunday’s.

source: EADT 24

Air Berlin reports positive figures for September 2007. The number of passengers transported amounted to 2,454,637 passengers, i.e. a 21 percent increase in comparison with the corresponding month of the previous year.

source: Boarding.no

Air Berlin is to end its twice-daily flights from Glasgow to Stansted - with onward connections to the German capital, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Munster, Hanover and Paderborn.

A spokeswoman said: “Our last flight will be on October 31. The doubling of the air passenger duty made our UK domestic hub operation commercially difficult.”

source: Evening Times

Air Berlin, the biggest German discount airline, has reached agreement to buy Condor Flugdienst from the tour operator Thomas Cook for up to €475 million in stock to add routes and planes.

The stock portion of the deal, valued at $667 million, would leave Thomas Cook, based in Britain, with 29.99 percent of Air Berlin stock, Thomas Cook said Thursday. It will also receive €120 million in cash.

Condor is Air Berlin’s third major purchase in a year as the carrier seeks to compete with its larger rivals, Ryanair Holdings and EasyJet. For Thomas Cook, the second-largest European travel agency after TUI Travel, the deal fits with a strategy of scaling down operating assets to reduce risk following its merger with MyTravel Group in June.

source: International Herald Tribune

Air Berlin will open a new route from London Stansted to Munich on 5 November 2007. The airline will fly twice daily from Monday to Friday and once on Saturday and Sunday.

source: earthtimes.org

Budget operator Air Berlin is to axe its flights from Belfast to London Stansted at the end of October, it was announced yesterday.

The airline will be pulling out of George Best Belfast City Airport with effect from October 29, the start of the winter timetable.

Air Berlin had no immediate comment to make, but yesterday it reported that bad summer weather had depressed demand generally and bemoaned rising operating costs.

source: Belfast Telegraph