Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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Boeing767copilot
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Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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Air Berlin Files for Insolvency as Etihad Pulls Funding Plug

- German carrier will continue flying with help of state loans
- Lufthansa in talks to buy parts of its discount rival

Air Berlin Plc filed for insolvency after leading shareholder Etihad Airways PJSC withdrew its financial support, marking the second failure of a major European airline in four months after the Persian Gulf carrier pulled the plug on funding Italy’s Alitalia SpA in May.

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Re: Air Berlin Files for Insolvency as Etihad Pulls Funding Plug

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Boeing767copilot wrote: 15 Aug 2017, 14:47 Air Berlin Files for Insolvency as Etihad Pulls Funding Plug
Detailed article: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/airberl ... ding-plug/
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Re: Air Berlin Files for Insolvency as Etihad Pulls Funding Plug

Post by Treeper »

according to wikipedia, air berlin has a fleet of 121 aircraft, of which 33 are leased out to EW, OS and 5P:
11 A319 (all operating for EW)
66 A320 (16 operating for EW, 5 for OS, 1 for 5P)
7 A321 (3 stored)
17 A332
20 DHC8
(2 A339 on order)

what's the average age?
supposing most of them will go to EW in the upcoming deal with LH, could SN also see some of them?


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Re: Air Berlin Files for Insolvency as Etihad Pulls Funding Plug

Post by sn26567 »

EasyJet (UK) emerged as a potential buyer for parts of Air Berlin, which filed for bankruptcy. The UK airline may be keen to acquire slots to boost its small presence in Germany, however, it is unlikely to support a full takeover.

Also Thomas Cook (UK) and sister carrier Condor (Germany) say they are ready to actively participate in the future of Air Berlin.

Meanwhile, Ryanair lodged complaints with German and EU competition regulators regarding the alleged conspiracy between the German government, Lufthansa and Air Berlin to carve up Air Berlin’s assets, while excluding major competitors and ignoring both EU competition and State Aid rules.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryanair ... ir-berlin/

Etihad to continue to explore options for Austrian Air Berlin subsidiary NIKI, as the Austrian carrier is not part of the insolvency proceedings of Air Berlin. Also, TUI (Germany) is in talks with Air Berlin over its wet lease contract.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by hsbahri »

Will passengers be eligible for flight refund in case they don't want to travel with them anymore? As there are chances flights 3 weeks down the line might not even take off. How useful can be websites like Air Help and claimflights.com in this?

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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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hsbahri wrote: 17 Aug 2017, 14:35 Will passengers be eligible for flight refund in case they don't want to travel with them anymore? As there are chances flights 3 weeks down the line might not even take off. How useful can be websites like Air Help and claimflights.com in this?
The airline has a credit line from the German government covering three months of operation. If a passenger refuses to fly a flight that he has duly booked, I'm afraid he will not get any refund, even if asking through AirHelp, ClaimIt or the others...
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

Air Berlin aims to strike deals to sell assets to two or more buyers by the end of September 2017, before a government loan runs out. The Group is in talks with a total of three aviation firms, including Lufthansa.

Lufthansa itself aims to take over as many as 90 of the roughly 140 aircraft from Air Berlin and operate them under its Eurowings brand. That includes the 38 aircraft that it is already leasing from Air Berlin and all of the NIKI (Austrian leisure subsidiary of Air Berlin) planes.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by crew1990 »

I wonder what will happend with Germania, Germania is a private airlines owned by a rich family. However, Germania had a very close relation with Air Berlin, they are sharing the same building in TXL, they are sharing the same maintenance facility, Germania was using the Airberlin for all the proceeding flight of the crews, ...

I think the bankrupt of Air Berlin will make more victim than foreseen.

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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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crew1990 wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 12:02 I wonder what will happend with Germania, Germania is a private airlines owned by a rich family. However, Germania had a very close relation with Air Berlin, they are sharing the same building in TXL, they are sharing the same maintenance facility, Germania was using the Airberlin for all the proceeding flight of the crews, ...

I think the bankrupt of Air Berlin will make more victim than foreseen.
Maybe it's time for Germania to stand on it's own feet ... but maintenance wise there will be a solution as well as the building unless if they pay AB for all of it .. then they're in trouble ..
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by quixoticguide »

All tickets issued until August 15th 2017 are no longer refundable. Tickets valid from August 15th 2017 will be subject to the applicable tariff conditions.

https://www.airberlin.com/site/affiliat ... enz_en.pdf
Visit my flights on: http://www.quixoticguide.com

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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

Air Berlin insolvency could open the way for Lufthansa to add new hubs in Dusseldorf and Berlin for inter-continental flights, via its Eurowings unit, while allowing easyJet to boost its presence in Berlin.

Air Berlin may also be bought by airline entrepreneur Hans Rudolf Woehrl, via his company Intro Aviation (Does it ring a bell? He owned Cityjet and VLM for some time after they were sold by Air France). He may team up with other investors to make a takeover offer.

Austrian leisure subsidiary NIKI unions said its future was unclear and they hoped for support from the Austrian government if it runs out of money. The government has not ruled out state aid.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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sn26567 wrote: 18 Aug 2017, 18:02 Air Berlin may also be bought by airline entrepreneur Hans Rudolf Woehrl, via his company Intro Aviation (Does it ring a bell? He owned Cityjet and VLM for some time after they were sold by Air France). He may team up with other investors to make a takeover offer.
I will buy airberlin to stop a Lufthansa monopoly in Germany

I like to buy airberlin, and I want to buy the airline as a whole,” these are the words of German entrepreneur Mr Hans Woehrl. A spokeswoman for his company INTRO-Verwaltungs GmbH told Reuters news agency, Mr Woehrl was planning a bid for the bankrupt German airline. Mr Woehrl thinks, buying airberlin was the only way to avoid the creation of a German airline monopoly with Lufthansa as the only major player.

He is married to CSU member of the German parliament and former Miss Germany Dagmar G Woehrl. He has five children from his two marriages.

In 2011 Woehrl started an airline by the name of flynext and offered European flights. Already in October 2011, he sold the airline to Germania. Flynext was called Germania Express.

Together with Peter Oncken, Rudolf Woehrl took over Intro Aviation GmbH, a consulting and investment firm. In December 2013 it was confirmed Intro Aviation bought CityJet and VLM Airlines from Air France-KLM. The airlines merged with Intersky as a regional European airline.

Intro Aviation told Reuters buying airberlin was the only way to avoid the creation of a German airline monopoly with Lufthansa as the only major player.

Earlier German magazine Capital reported Woehrl was thinking of teaming up with other investors to make a takeover offer for Air Berlin, citing people familiar with the matter.

INTRO already declared its interest years ago to take a majority stake in the Air Berlin group jointly with additional investors. This interest still exists,” the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement, adding other investors were involved.

No offer for airberlin has been submitted so far because there are concerns that the loan by the government is meant to deliberately promote a monopoly structure that seeks to block offers from investors right from the start,” the INTRO spokeswoman said.

According to a Reuters article airberlin has been in preliminary talks with a total of three aviation firms, including Lufthansa over the sale of its assets, Chief Executive Thomas Winkelmann told a newspaper.

A source has said easyJet was also part of the negotiations, while Thomas Cook’s German airline Condor said it was ready to play “an active role” in Air Berlin’s restructuring, without being more specific.

Source: eTN
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

Air Berlin take over as a whole will not be possible, says Matthias Machnig, Germany’s Deputy Economy Minister, as assets are likely to be carved up.

Is the Minister pushing towards a solution that will see Lufthansa emerging as a winner? Will the EU accept? I doubt...

And indeed, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr is ready to welcome large numbers of employees from insolvent competitor Air Berlin to build up its Eurowings unit, promoting his company as a safe haven for jobs – albeit with a pay cut.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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TUI (Germany) wants to safeguard the jobs of 700 employees who work on planes leased to Air Berlin and isn’t interested in rescuing the insolvent carrier.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

The low-costs enter in action:

EasyJet is planning to take over up to half of the 70,000 flying slots currently offered by Air Berlin at Dusseldorf, for routes to Munich, Berlin, Zurich, Hamburg and Copenhagen.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary says his company would be interested in bidding for the whole of insolvent Air Berlin, but it needs access to more data on the airline’s finances.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

The Air Berlin frequent flyer programme Top Bonus now also files for insolvency. Some passengers will feel very unhappy!
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by sn26567 »

Air Berlin closed reservations for planned winter 2017/18 service from Berlin Tegel to New York JFK and San Francisco, as well as from Dusseldorf to Boston, Los Angeles and Orlando.

Condor is interested in taking on a number of planes from insolvent Air Berlin. Carrier is also interested in mainly short-haul routes, and also some long-haul ones.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said he would be interested in a bid for Air Berlin as a whole, but complained Ryanair hadn’t been invited to the process, which he sees as heavily favouring Lufthansa. (IMHO, nobody has been invited, except Lufthansa. But easyJet at least reacted promptly and swiftly)

Lufthansa submitted a letter of interest for NIKI (Austria) and other parts of parent Air Berlin, although the latter’s creditor committee says it has not decided or discussed the possible sale of NIKI to Lufthansa. In total, Lufthansa wants to take on up to 90 planes.

And then, one can also make some humour about it:

Image

And finally some good news: Germany wants to eliminate the air transport tax following the bankruptcy of Air Berlin.
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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

Post by LJ »

sn26567 wrote: 25 Aug 2017, 17:24 Air Berlin closed reservations for planned winter 2017/18 service from Berlin Tegel to New York JFK and San Francisco, as well as from Dusseldorf to Boston, Los Angeles and Orlando.
One wonders who actually books on Air Berlin nowadays for W17.

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Re: Air Berlin files for insolvency as Etihad pulls funding plug

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Air Berlin Finance filed for suspension of payments with the competent court in Amsterdam.

Air Berlin frequent flyer programme "topbonus" filed for insolvency, with members no longer able to use points on their accounts.
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