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German carrier Air Berlin on Tuesday confirmed that it is planning to raise its stake in its Austrian partner Niki, the airline of Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda. The German budget airline said it is “‘in advanced negotiations'” on increasing its share and indicated that its board of directors would discuss the matter on Tuesday.

So far, Lauda’s budget carrier has profited from the Austrian Airlines  takeover last year because the European Commission gave the go-ahead on  the condition that the enlarged Lufthansa group hand over landing rights  to Niki.

source: earthtimes.org

Germany’s second-largest airline says it will begin regular flights to Iraq from Saturday. The new route forms another link in the carrier’s expanding global network of destinations.

Low-cost air carrier Air Berlin said it will begin scheduled fortnightly passenger flights to Iraq as of Saturday, the first German airline to do so since the Iraq War.

The airline said connections would be offered from Munich to Erbil in northern Iraq and Sulaimaniya in northeastern Iraq, alternating every second week between the two destinations.

source: dw-world.de

German airline Air Berlin Plc has entered a codeshare cooperation with Bangkok Airways of Thailand, allowing Air Berlin passengers to book connecting flights on the Thai airline.

The German carrier will offer together with Bangkok Airways codeshared connecting flights within Thailand from Bangkok.

Air Berlin is Germany’s second largest airline after Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

source: Etaiwan News

Europe’s biggest travel firm, TUI Travel, is to take a stake in German airline Air Berlin.

The firm will pay 28.5m euros (£26.5m) for a 19.9% holding in Air Berlin as part of a cross-shareholding agreement.

The deal aims to lower TUI’s running costs and reduce the number of flights they run to European destinations, which has been one of its aims since the merger.

source: BBC

Germany’s second largest airline Air Berlin recorded moderate growth of only 1% over 2007. However, the airline remains committed to further growth in 2009 with new routes coming on line. Air Berlin will fly from Hanover to Stockholm Arlanda, as well as between Stuttgart and Nice. It will also boost its presence at Berlin Tegel with more frequencies to Nuremburg.

source: traveldailynews.com

Etihad Airways, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, is considering an investment in Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline.

The company’s senior management has been intensively studying the idea for several weeks; no decision has been made.

The German carrier has a well-established, dense and non-centered European and domestic network currently served by a fleet of 112 aircraft. Its biggest bases are Duesseldorf and Berlin — two airports that Etihad does not serve. To a limited degree, Air Berlin could feed Etihad’s Munich services and to an even lesser degree its Frankfurt departures. Slot constraints make reshaping of the network difficult to achieve.

source: aviationweek.com

Air Berlin, Europe’s third-biggest low-cost airline, saw third quarter operating earnings increase as cost cuts helped its bottom line and more business travellers appeared to sign up for discount travel.

The three months to September saw an end to several quarters of worsening performance, following the takeover of two smaller rivals – DBA in 2006 and LTU in 2007 – that saw capacity and costs spiral.

A merger with Condor, a charter airline, was called off earlier this year.

The carrier this summer said it would shrink its fleet by 10 per cent to 120 aircraft, as well as reduce European and some long-haul routes. These moves helped boost seat-utilisation rates even as passenger numbers fell.

source: FT.com

Dba, the former Deutsche BA, is to cease operations from 30 November. The carrier operates on German domestic routes from Munich and Dusseldorf.

The airline, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Berlin, currently operates nine aircraft and employs 120 pilots and 175 flight attendants. The airline’s parent company said the employees would be offered comparable jobs within the group and at their current locations.

source: businesstravelworld.com

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