Air Berlin is Germany’s second biggest airline (behind Lufthansa) and Europe’s third biggest low-cost carrier (behind easyJet and Ryanair). The German airline owns about 90 aircraft and reaches almost 100 destinations across Europe.
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Air Berlin was founded as Air Berlin USA by former PanAm captain Kim Lundgren in Oregon, USA, in 1978. The reason for the founding place was the existing law allowing only aircraft from the allied nations to land in Berlin after WWII.
Service was commenced on April 28, 1979, with a leased Boeing 707 en route from Berlin to Palma de Mallorca. By the end of 1981, the 707 had been replaced by two Boeing 737s and the Mediterranean became main destination area.
With the German reunification the allies lost their privileges of flights and the airline had to be converted to a German company. This action was taken by new CEO Joachim Hunold (former LTU manager) on April 16, 1991. The new airline name was Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG. It was restructured and became Germany’s second biggest airline, owning around 40 Boeing 737s.
In 1997, IATA was joined, which made Air Berlin a scheduled air carrier with flights to major European cities.
In 2004, Air Berlin purchased 24 % of former Formula One champion Niki Lauda’s airline Flyniki and announced cooperation with them.
The first public offering of Air Berlin stocks took place in May 2006. In August of the same year, the airline bought competitor dba. On April 1, 2007, dba was fully integrated into Air Berlin, giving them a fleet of around 90 aircraft, mainly Airbus A320s, Boeing 737s and Fokker F100s.
Still in March 2007, Air Berlin announced the purchase of German holiday airline LTU. AB had paid 140 million euros, but LTU’s debts (around 200 million euros) had to be covered by the new owners as well. LTU will maintain service in its own name. At the same time, Air Berlin signed a new code-share contract with Condor.
With around 90 aircraft almost 100 European destinations are reached from the main hub in Berlin-Tegel and other cities. Air Berlin serves a business model with some frills, like allocated seats, a frequent-flyer program and onboard meals.
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