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80-457: Germanwings operated independently as Lufthansa's low-cost carrier until October 2015, when Lufthansa decided to fully transfer the brand identity of its low cost short haul-product to Eurowings. After 2016, Germanwings operated as a wet lease operator for its sister company Eurowings , with the Germanwings branding being phased out at this time. The IATA code "4U" continued to operate under

160-408: A buy on board food and drinks programme. The airline provided an inflight magazine, a bi-monthly German and English magazine called GW . While the primary editorial focus was rooted in Germanwings destinations, the content was not exclusively about travel. Germanwings booking service provided Blind Booking , a unique option that allowed passengers to choose one of Germanwings' base airports, select

240-414: A finance lease . A wet lease is a leasing arrangement whereby one airline (the lessor ) provides an aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) to another airline or other type of business acting as a broker of air travel (the lessee ), which pays by hours operated. The lessee provides fuel and covers airport fees, and any other duties, taxes, etc. The flight uses the flight number of

320-510: A 30% stake in Air Berlin. However, the rapidly increasing price of jet fuel and other considerations led to the abandonment of the deal in July 2008. In January 2008 Air Berlin introduced a new logo and corporate design. The logo is a white oval shape on a red background (suggesting an aircraft window) where the letter "a" is a white circle and two white stylised wings. The text "Air Berlin"

400-427: A 30-percent minority share would be retained. Air Berlin also announced the expansion of the existing codeshare agreement with Etihad Airways on 20 December 2012. In January 2013, the first Airbus A330-200 was introduced with a new business class which enabled a fully flat position for the first time. On 7 January 2013 Air Berlin appointed Austrian Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, former Chief Strategy and Planning Officer, as

480-545: A 9.9% stake in Air Berlin PLC using a capital increase at a subsidiary to do so. At the end of March 2009, a strategic partnership agreement with TUI Travel was signed, with Air Berlin and its competitor TUIfly purchasing 19.9 percent of the other's shares. Following the deal, Air Berlin took over all German domestic TUIfly routes, as well as those to Italy, Croatia and Austria. Also, all of Tuifly's Boeing 737-700 aircraft were added to Air Berlin's fleet. TUIfly

560-520: A B737-8 can be leased for slightly more than $ 385,000 per month and a 12 year term with a good credit can be lower than $ 370,000 per month for an A320neo (0.74% of its around $ 49 million capital cost ), generating $ 53 million of revenue and over $ 8.5 million in an end of lease compensation for maintenance , while still being worth $ 20 million. Airlines which cannot afford a good deal on factory direct aircraft or carriers who prefer to maintain flexibility can lease their aircraft with an operating lease or

640-857: A German-owned company and shifted its core business to compete more directly with Lufthansa, eventually becoming one of Germany's biggest airlines. After years of losses, however, Air Berlin filed for insolvency in August 2017 and ceased operations two months later. Originally registered as Air Berlin USA , the company was founded in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lelco, an American agricultural enterprise headquartered in Oregon , to operate charter flights on behalf of German tour operators from Berlin Tegel Airport , mostly to Mediterranean holiday resorts. The co-founders of Air Berlin USA were: Lelco

720-452: A Vienna-based airline. As part of the deal, Air Berlin took a 24% stake in Niki. In 2005, Air Berlin signed a partnership agreement with Germania . As part of the deal, Air Berlin leased some of Germania's aircraft and crew, and Germania became almost exclusively a charter airline. Plans were made for Germania to be associated with Air Berlin under a management contract. However, the contract

800-476: A category of destination (e.g. Party, Gay-friendly or Culture) and then purchase a round-trip ticket via a random lottery process from among the cities in the category. Such tickets were often priced lower than the corresponding ticket to the same destination, and Germanwings e-mails its customers with details of their destination shortly after the purchase. Germanwings had been wholly owned by Lufthansa since 1 January 2009; formal reporting since then had been within

880-466: A company. From that date, Eurowings became solely responsible for all sales under the Germanwings brand. In January 2016, Germanwings' social media profiles, such as those on Facebook and YouTube , were renamed Eurowings, while germanwings.com was redirected to eurowings.com . However, Germanwings continued to operate under its own flight numbers, but used the Eurowings brand. In December 2016, it

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960-571: A compound annual growth rate ( CAGR ) of 4.1%. A dry lease is a leasing arrangement whereby an aircraft financing entity (lessor), such as AerCap or Air Lease Corporation , provides an aircraft without crew, ground staff, etc. Dry lease is typically used by leasing companies and banks, requiring the lessee to put the aircraft on its own air operator's certificate (AOC) and provide aircraft registration. A typical dry lease lasts upwards of two years and bears certain conditions with respect to depreciation, maintenance, insurances, etc., depending also on

1040-584: A dry lease. In some markets, there may also be hybrid models, such as with crew provided by lessees. Operating leases of jet airliner accounted for less than 2% of the fleet in 1976, then 15% in the early 1990s, 25% in 2000 and 40% in 2017, with lessors involved in 62% of second hand mid-life aircraft transactions since 2000: 42% in Europe and 29% in North America. In 2015, over $ 120 billion worth of commercial aircraft were delivered worldwide and half of

1120-532: A five-year-plus delay to the new hub Berlin Brandenburg Airport ; failed negotiations to profit from lower fuel prices and the overall harsh competition in the airline industry. In July 2016, Air Berlin confirmed that it no longer owned any of the aircraft it operates, having sold and leased back the last of the aircraft it had previously owned. A few weeks later it was reported that Air Berlin and Etihad Airways were in talks with Lufthansa regarding

1200-492: A form of charter whereby the lessor provides minimum operating services, including ACMI, and the lessee provides the balance of services along with flight numbers. In all other forms of charter, the lessor provides the flight numbers. Variations of a wet lease include a code share arrangement, a block seat agreement, and a capacity purchase agreement. Wet leases are occasionally used for political reasons. For instance, EgyptAir , an Egyptian government enterprise, for many years

1280-585: A further 12 options , with deliveries scheduled from July 2006 until 2008. During winter 2004–2005, Germanwings leased two Boeing 717-200s from Aerolíneas de Baleares to test the aircraft type, but no order was made afterwards. In 2008, initial plans were made to merge Germanwings, Eurowings and TUIfly into one airline to compete with Air Berlin and its subsidiary LTU in the German market and with easyJet and Ryanair on international routes. However, these plans never realized. Instead, Germanwings became

1360-484: A larger aircraft requires. Reconfiguring an Airbus A330 -300 can cost $ 7 million and even more for a Boeing 777 -300ER or an Airbus A380 : introducing IFE - $ 1.5 million ($ 5,000 per seat), replacing business seats - $ 1.5 million ($ 30,000 each), replacing economy seats - $ 1 million ($ 5,000 each), a new lavatory or galley - $ 100,000, moving a monument - $ 35,000, class dividers - $ 50,000, passenger service units - $ 9,000 per passenger, sidewall panels - $ 6,000 each, updating

1440-609: A long-standing dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union, which demanded a plan in which pilots can retire at the age of 55 and retain 60% of their pay, which parent Lufthansa insists was not affordable. Germanwings pilots staged a nationwide strike in support of their demands in April 2014, which lasted 3 days. The pilots staged a six-hour strike in September 2014. Simultaneous strikes were staged by Lufthansa pilots. By

1520-587: A wet lease basis from TUIfly until 2019. All Boeing 737-800s were to be phased out by 2016 as Air Berlin plans to focus their short- and medium-haul fleet on the Airbus A320 family to cut costs. In November 2015, Air Berlin announced the closure of its Palma de Mallorca Airport hub by ceasing all of the hub's seven Spanish domestic routes by 3 April 2016. Some days earlier, the airline announced plans to add flights from Düsseldorf to Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco and Havana by spring 2016. However,

1600-401: A wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa on 1 January 2009. In 2012, Lufthansa announced its plans to transfer point-to-point shorthaul flights operating from cities other than Frankfurt and Munich from Lufthansa to Germanwings. Therefore, the company received a revised corporate design. The transfer of Lufthansa's shorthaul routes occurred between spring 2013 and autumn 2014; Düsseldorf Airport

1680-401: Is 16.5% owned by ESAS Holding AS. The new airline was absorbed into Pegasus Airlines on 31 March 2013. In the third quarter of 2011, the turnover of the company amounted to 1.4 billion euros, an increase of 11%. However, operating profit decreased by almost 50% to around 97 million euros. As a result, a new bond to raise additional capital was issued. In November 2011 Air Berlin took over

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1760-477: The Bearbus paint scheme inspired by the coat of arms of Berlin ), or as advertisements (e.g. a pink livery for T-Mobile ). Those were abandoned during the 2013 rebranding. As of the merger, Germanwings had been involved in one major incident, which resulted in 150 fatalities. On 24 March 2015, an Airbus A320-211 with registration D-AIPX was operating Flight 9525 from Barcelona to Düsseldorf when it crashed in

1840-420: The 150 lessors are managing 8,400 aircraft worth $ 256 billion with 2,321 aircraft on backlog from 28 of them, their penetration having stabilised at 42.6%. Aircraft lessors are often banks, hedge funds or financial institutions. Aircraft financing is a $ 140 billion industry, dominated by Ireland due to the rise and collapse in 1992 of pioneer Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA), of which the former executives manage

1920-412: The 50 largest in 2017, led by ICBC leasing in the top ten, having the value of their managed fleet grew by 15% since 2016. In a few cases, Chinese lessors forgot they had to get secondary leases and missed the redelivery timing, stranding aircraft for a few months. Rentals are often anchored to LIBOR rates. A320neo and B737 MAX 8 lease rates are $ 20-30,000 higher than their predecessors: by 2018,

2000-422: The 75 aircraft was 5.1 billion US dollars (based on list prices at the time.) Delivery of the aircraft started in 2007. All of these aircraft were equipped with blended winglets , to improve fuel efficiency. In March 2007, Air Berlin took over German leisure airline LTU , gaining access to the long-haul market and becoming the fourth-largest airline group in Europe in terms of passenger traffic. This deal led to

2080-491: The Austrian airline Niki . Air Berlin indirectly acquired 25.9% of the shares in Niki from Privatstiftung Lauda (private Lauda foundation) and in doing so increased its shareholding in Niki from 24% to 49.9%. In connection with the increase of its shareholding, Air Berlin was to grant the private Lauda foundation a 40.5 million-euro loan. The private foundation had the options to repay the loan in three years with cash or through

2160-627: The Berlin Tegel Airport - Brussels - Orlando route; however, by 1982, the 707s had been phased out, and during most of the 1980s, Air Berlin USA operated only a single 737-200 or (from 1986) a 737-300 . In 1990 and 1991, two Boeing 737-400s were also placed into service. German reunification led to significant changes to the European aviation market, and in particular in Berlin: German airlines now gained access to

2240-522: The Eurowings brand until March 2018, when it was abandoned and replaced with the Eurowings designator EW . Germanwings was closed and merged back into Eurowings in April 2020 as part of a broad restructuring and the Covid 19 pandemic . In 1997, Eurowings set up a low-cost department, which became a separate company under the name Germanwings on 27 October 2002. On 7 December 2005, the airline signed an agreement to purchase 18 Airbus A319-100 aircraft with

2320-637: The Eurowings brand. In October 2019, the Pristina base, which had been operated by Germanwings since June 2019, was transferred to Eurowings Europe . In return, Germanwings took over the German base in Munich which had been operated by its sister airline. On 7 April 2020, Lufthansa announced that it would be shutting down Germanwings, partly due to the large travel ban during the COVID-19 pandemic . Germanwings had offered three fare types since 2013. Basic

2400-489: The Germanwings brand. The first Germanwings bases to be mostly taken over by Eurowings were Düsseldorf Airport , Hamburg Airport - at both of which Eurowings already operated on behalf of Germanwings - and Cologne Bonn Airport . Lufthansa announced in October 2015 that Germanwings' own website would be dissolved and redirected to Eurowings by January 2016 as part of their merger. However, Germanwings continued to operate as

2480-488: The Group Accounts. From 2012, Germanwings figures had been reported only within the 'Lufthansa Passenger Airline Group', and have not generally been available separately. The key known trends for Germanwings are shown below (as at year ending 31 December): In line with Lufthansa's declared business strategy, the transfer of European non-hub traffic from Lufthansa Passenger Airlines to Germanwings continued in 2014 and

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2560-518: The IFE database - $ 125,000, repainting the aircraft - $ 100,000, engineering costs - $ 100,000. Air Berlin Air Berlin plc & Co. Luftverkehrs KG ( FWB :  AB1 ), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com , was a major German airline . At its peak, it was Germany 's second-largest airline after Lufthansa , as well as Europe's tenth-largest airline in terms of passengers carried. It

2640-574: The Platinum status for its frequent-flyer program topbonus. In May 2012 Air Berlin presented its new fare structure "Your Fare" including "Just Fly", "Fly Classic" and "FlyFlex" for flights from 1 July 2012. On 11 May 2012 Air Berlin opened its triweekly non-stop flight from Berlin to Los Angeles in the summer schedule, a destination which until then had only been served from Düsseldorf. On 18 December 2012 Air Berlin announced that topbonus , its frequent flyer program, would be sold to Etihad Airways; only

2720-588: The US. DHL has a joint venture in the United States with Polar Air Cargo , a subsidiary of Atlas Air , to operate their domestic deliveries. In the United Kingdom, a wet lease refers to an aircraft lease in which the aircraft is operated under the air operator's certificate (AOC) of the lessor. An arrangement where the lessor provides the aircraft, flight crew and maintenance but the lessee provides

2800-570: The airline rather than via a tour operator) in 1997, initially linking a number of secondary German airports to Mallorca. By 2002, 35 percent of Air Berlin's tickets were sold directly. In the same year, the airline expanded beyond holiday destinations as low-fare flights marketed as "City Shuttle" to London, Barcelona , Milan and Vienna started. Besides Berlin-Tegel, these routes were opened at six German airports ( Dortmund , Düsseldorf , Hamburg , Münster/Osnabrück , Nuremberg , and Paderborn/Lippstadt ) that until then had not been served by one of

2880-715: The airlines of the Lufthansa Group implemented a policy requiring this. However, by 2016, the EASA stopped recommending the two-person rule, instead advising airlines to perform a risk assessment and decide for themselves whether to use the rule. Germanwings and other German airlines dropped the rule in 2017. [REDACTED] Media related to Germanwings at Wikimedia Commons Wet lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without

2960-535: The bilateral air-traffic agreement between Germany and the UAE. The Luftfahrt-Bundesamt had allowed these flights until a definite legal ruling was made. In April 2016, Air Berlin announced a record loss of €446 million for 2015; the airline's revenues had decreased to €4.08 billion. Amongst the reasons considered for Air Berlin's poor performance were: crippling debt of over €800m; unclear and rapid strategy changes on routes and advertising; several CEOs over recent years;

3040-577: The cabin crew is sometimes referred to as a "damp lease", a term especially used in the UK ; it is also occasionally referred to as a "moist lease". In the UK, a dry lease is when an aircraft is operated under the AOC of the lessee. At the end of July 2015, the top 50 aircraft lessors managed 8,184 aircraft: 511 turboprop regional airliners , 792 regional jets , 5,612 narrowbody and 1,253 widebody airliners. In 2017,

3120-468: The city. In 1991, Air Berlin (which had 90 employees at the time) was restructured as Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG , a German-registered company, with several German investors joining Kim Lundgren, the original founder, thereby bringing the ownership in line with German foreign-control requirements. Joachim Hunold ( de ), a former sales and marketing director with LTU International , now led

3200-635: The company earlier in 2006. After the IPO, the company claimed to have over 400 million euros in cash to fund further expansion, including aircraft purchases. In August 2006, Air Berlin acquired German domestic airline dba . Flight operations at dba were continued as a fully owned subsidiary of Air Berlin until 14 November 2008, when the dba brand was discontinued due to staff strikes (dba staff were subsequently offered positions with Air Berlin). On 28 November 2006, Air Berlin ordered 60 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, and 15 smaller Boeing 737-700 aircraft. The value of

3280-413: The company's CEO, replacing Hartmut Mehdorn. Air Berlin started flights between Berlin and Chicago on 23 March 2013. It cancelled the seasonal non-stop flights to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Vancouver. In March 2013 Air Berlin announced the closure of its seasonal hub for leisure destinations at Nuremberg Airport . Only ten year-round direct routes remained. On 24 September 2014, Air Berlin cancelled

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3360-413: The company. Following an order for ten Boeing 737-800s , Air Berlin grew and by 1999, the fleet grew to twelve aircraft. In 2001, Air Berlin and Hapag-Lloyd Flug became the first airlines in the world to have their Boeing 737-800s fitted with blended winglets , wingtip devices that are intended to improve fuel efficiency . Air Berlin introduced scheduled flights (which could be booked directly with

3440-408: The delay was due to rises in fuel costs and other market pressures limiting investor demand. It reduced the initial share-price range from 15.0 to 17.5 euros to 11.5–14.5 euros. The stock opened at €12.0, selling a total of 42.5 million shares. Of these, 19.6 million were new shares increasing capital in the company, and the remainder to repay loans extended by the original shareholders and invested in

3520-596: The end of 2014, all of Lufthansa's national routes and international traffic to and from Germany - except flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich and the routes from Düsseldorf to Newark and Chicago - were transferred to Germanwings. The last route to be transferred was Düsseldorf-Zurich on 8 January 2015. In January 2015, Lufthansa Group announced that it would discontinue the Germanwings brand and replace it with Eurowings starting in late 2015. On 25 October 2015, Eurowings took over 55 routes previously operated under

3600-529: The end of March 2009, Air Berlin PLC and TUI Travel PLC signed a deal by which their German flight businesses were to operate a long-term strategic alliance. Originally, each company was to take a 19.9% stake in the other and the German cartel authorities were petitioned for approval. After the Bundeskartellamt expressed concerns, the cross-ownership plan was not implemented. Instead, TUI Travel PLC purchased

3680-460: The financial burden of buying them, as well as to provide temporary increase in capacity. The industry has two main leasing types: wet-leasing, which is normally used for short-term leasing, and dry-leasing which is more normal for longer-term leases. The industry also uses combinations of wet and dry. For example, when the aircraft is wet-leased to establish new services, then as the airline's flight or cabin crews become trained, they can be switched to

3760-458: The frequent-flyer programs topbonus and Etihad Guest was announced in March 2012. In June 2012, the collaboration concluded with the bonus programs airberlin business points and Etihad Airways Business Connect for SMBs . On 20 March 2012, the entry into Oneworld was officially completed. The Oneworld network offered over 800 destinations in 150 countries. At the same time, the airline introduced

3840-406: The geographical location, political circumstances, etc. A dry-lease arrangement can also be made between a major airline and a regional airline , in which the major airline provides the aircraft and the regional operator provides flight crews, maintenance and other operational aspects of the aircraft, which then may be operated under the major airline's name or some similar name. A dry lease saves

3920-903: The global lessors were based in Ireland . Having an aggressive growth mandate, more aggressive, smaller entrants have overpaid for many of their assets in the sale and leaseback market and are then undercharged on lease rates in order to win the business, with lower maintenance reserves and return conditions: lease-rate factors have fallen to 0.6% per month (7.2% per year), even reaching 0.55% (6.6% per year). Despite Air Berlin and Monarch Airlines bankruptcies, their leased aircraft have been rapidly placed at "normal market rates" due to traffic growth as global revenue passenger kilometers are up by 7.7% over one year through September 2017, and Airbus struggles to deliver A320neos due to engine supply delays. In 2007, Beijing allowed Chinese banks to start leasing units, and nine Chinese lessors were part of

4000-503: The integration of LTU. All Air Berlin Group technical services were consolidated in a new company called airberlin technik GmbH. It also added new routes, more frequent flights and additional long-haul flights from Düsseldorf. On 15 June 2011, Air Berlin and British Airways reached a codeshare agreement covering some flights within Europe, starting from 5 July 2011. The agreement applied to flights to over 40 European destinations served by

4080-549: The introduction of Airbus A321 and Airbus A330 aircraft into Air Berlin's fleet. On 1 May 2009, the LTU brand was discontinued. On 7 July 2007, Air Berlin announced an order for 25 Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner long-haul aircraft, with further options and purchase rights. Three additional aircraft of this type were to be leased from ILFC . On 21 August 2007, Air Berlin acquired a 49 percent shareholding in Swiss charter airline Belair ,

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4160-421: The languages used for onboard announcements. On 18 June of the same year, Air Berlin announced that it would reduce its long-haul services by 13 percent and its domestic services by 10 percent to increase profitability. In September 2008, Air Berlin confirmed merger talks with competitor TUIfly , but added it was speaking with all parties. Air Berlin had, until 2007, been flying many code-share TUI flights. At

4240-457: The largest lessors: Aengus Kelly is the CEO of AerCap , the world's largest, Domhnal Slattery heads the third largest, Avolon , and Peter Barrett runs the fourth, SMBC Aviation Capital while the second largest, GECAS , formed from the hulk of GPA. Lessors have a preference for narrowbodies over widebodies due to more remarketing opportunities and the substantial reconfiguration time and cost

4320-470: The latter's acquisition of some of Air Berlin's routes outside of the Berlin and Düsseldorf hubs as well as some staff and aircraft leases. Also in July 2016, Air Berlin announced the increase of flights to the United States from 55 to 78 nonstops per week for 2017. Besides some frequency increases, Los Angeles and San Francisco were to be served from Berlin as well as by the then existing Düsseldorf routes. And

4400-427: The lessee. A wet lease generally lasts 1–24 months. A wet lease is typically utilized during peak traffic seasons or annual heavy maintenance checks , or to initiate new routes. A wet-leased aircraft may be used to fly services into countries where the lessee is banned from operating. It can also be used to replace unavailable capacity or to circumvent regulatory or political restrictions. They can also be considered

4480-488: The major airline the expense of training personnel to fly and maintain the aircraft, along with other considerations (such as staggered union contracts, regional airport staffing, etc.). FedEx Express uses an arrangement of this type for its feeder operations, contracting to companies such as Empire Airlines , Mountain Air Cargo , Swiftair , and others to operate its single and twin-engined turbo-prop "feeder" aircraft in

4560-449: The originally planned opening in 2012. The delayed opening of the new airport made it difficult to operate a hub, as the infrastructure at Tegel was not designed for a hub. Air Berlin founded Follow Me Entertainment GmbH in September 2010 as a joint venture with kick-media ag. This joint-venture company markets image and sound media, books, games as well as events, concerts, tournaments and sponsoring. On 1 April 2011 Air Berlin completed

4640-630: The planned route to Dallas/Fort Worth was cancelled a few weeks later due to low demand. On 30 December 2015, the administrative court in Braunschweig ruled in favour of the German civil aviation authority (the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt ) and against Air Berlin regarding some of their codeshare operations with Etihad Airways . The shared sale and advertising of 31 out of 83 routes which were marketed by both were declared illegal and ordered stopped by 15 January 2016 as they were not covered by

4720-429: The remainder being owned by tour operator Hotelplan. Following the deal, Belair's long-haul business was terminated, and the fleet was replaced by Airbus A320 family aircraft operating scheduled flights on behalf of Air Berlin as well as charter flights for Hotelplan. On 20 September 2007, Air Berlin announced it intended to buy its competitor Condor in a deal that envisaged Condor's owner, Thomas Cook Group , taking

4800-437: The remaining 15 orders for their Boeing 787s as well as 18 remaining orders for Boeing 737-800s as part of their restructuring programme. In October 2014, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt denied Air Berlin authorization to operate 34 routes as a codeshare with co-owner Etihad from the 2014/2015 winter schedule as they would contravene the bilateral traffic rights between Germany and the UAE. Also in October 2014, Air Berlin announced

4880-635: The remaining 50.1% stake in NIKI as repayment of a loan and became its sole owner. The brand name was retained and Niki Lauda was given a position on the board of Air Berlin. Air Berlin announced on 19 December 2011 that the Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways had increased its share of Air Berlin from 2.99% to 29.1%, for a sum of 73 million euros, making Etihad the company's largest shareholder. The deal supplied more cash to Air Berlin, and provided Etihad access to Air Berlin's European network. The cooperation of

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4960-659: The rising European low-cost carriers. In what later became a hallmark for Air Berlin as a "semi-low cost carrier", the airline offered complimentary meals and seat reservations, in contrast to its competitors Buzz , Hapag-Lloyd Express , Ryanair and Virgin Express . In November 2001, the delivery flight of a Boeing 737-800 fitted with winglets set a record: the aircraft with the registration code D-ABBC flew 8,345 kilometres non-stop from Seattle ( Boeing Field ), USA to Berlin (TXL), Germany in 9 hours, 10 minutes. In January 2004, Air Berlin announced it would cooperate with Niki ,

5040-539: The south of France near Digne-les-Bains , with no survivors. The flight was carrying 144 passengers, two pilots and four cabin crew. German investigators concluded that 27-year-old co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had deliberately crashed the plane, while alone in the cockpit. Lubitz took time off from his flight training for several months and informed the Flight Training Pilot School in 2009 of a "previous episode of severe depression". He later completed

5120-444: The termination of flights to Palma de Mallorca from both Bremen Airport and Dortmund Airport , therefore withdrawing entirely from these two German airports. Air Berlin announced a net loss for 2014 of €376m (€316m loss in 2013). The airline's revenues in 2014 stagnated at €4.16 billion. In September 2015, Air Berlin phased out the last Boeing 737-700s owned by the company. The remaining aircraft of this type would operate on

5200-486: The training. Prior to his training as a commercial pilot, he was also treated for suicidal tendencies. Following the incident, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) made a recommendation to airlines that two authorized people must be present in the cockpit at all times. In coordination with the German aviation authority, other German airlines and the German aviation industry association,

5280-501: The transfer of the remaining 50.1% of Niki's shares. In July 2010, it was also announced that Air Berlin would join Oneworld , the global airline alliance . In preparation for joining the alliance, Air Berlin made codeshare agreements with Finnair and American Airlines starting with the 2010/2011 winter schedule. Air Berlin planned to operate an airline hub at Berlin Brandenburg Airport together with its Oneworld partners from

5360-466: The two airlines. CEO Joachim Hunold resigned from his position on 1 September 2011 and was succeeded by the former CEO of Deutsche Bahn AG, Hartmut Mehdorn, who led the company on an interim basis until January 2013. In November 2011 Air Berlin and Pegasus Airlines (Turkey's largest private airline) launched Air Berlin Turkey , aiming at the charter market between Germany and Turkey. Pegasus Airlines

5440-534: Was an international airline and was not obliged to use Catalan. Hunold went on to criticise the language policy in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, claiming that at the time many children could not speak any Spanish. The Balearic Islands' president, Francesc Antich , explained that his government had simply sent a letter to encourage airlines operating in the Balearic Islands to include Catalan among

5520-508: Was announced that Germanwings would retire 20 aircraft during 2017 without replacement due to Lufthansa's new wet-lease deal with Air Berlin which also provided services for Eurowings . It was reported that the Air Berlin aircraft were newer and cheaper to operate than those of Germanwings. In August 2017, it was announced that Germanwings would abandon its own IATA code 4U by 25 March 2018. Since then, it has used Eurowings' EW code on for all operations, which are already carried out under

5600-400: Was completed successfully on 7 January 2015. (The increase in 2013 and 2014 figures was due to this intervening transfer of aircraft and routes from Lufthansa.) Germanwings had codeshare agreements with the following airlines: Germanwings operated the following aircraft: Germanwings used several different special liveries. Some aircraft had special liveries promoting German cities (e.g.

5680-580: Was headquartered in Berlin and had hubs at Berlin Tegel Airport and Düsseldorf Airport . At the time of its insolvency, it was a member of the Oneworld airline alliance , having joined in 2012. The airline was originally founded by American interests in 1978 to provide airline service to West Berlin , a territory that could not legally be served by West German airlines such as Lufthansa due to political restrictions on East German airspace. In 1991, shortly after German reunification , Air Berlin became

5760-487: Was in lower case and written as one word. Sometimes the slogan "Your Airline" was featured as part of the logo. In June 2008, CEO Joachim Hunold offended Catalan language speakers, when he claimed in an article included in Air Berlin's in-flight magazine that the government of the Balearic Islands was trying to impose the use of Catalan on Air Berlin flights from and to Majorca . He claimed that Air Berlin

5840-537: Was no-frills and offered no inclusive catering and only hand luggage. Best included hold baggage, inclusive snacks and drinks as well as access to some lounges for tier members of Miles&More. Smart and Best more or less corresponded to the Lufthansa service offered on the routes taken over by Germanwings. The fleet was only equipped with economy class . Germanwings offered Sky Bistro ( Bord Shop in German),

5920-462: Was not allowed to fly to Israel under its own name, as a matter of Egyptian government policy. Hence Egyptian flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv were operated by Air Sinai , which wet-leased from EgyptAir to circumvent the political issue. In 2021, Egypt changed its policy and EgyptAir started operating flights to Israel under its own banner. The global wet lease market is projected to grow from US$ 7.35 billion in 2019 to US$ 10.9 billion in 2029,

6000-630: Was not signed. At the beginning of March 2008, Germania's joint owners could not reach agreement on the takeover by Air Berlin, so Germania remained an independent airline. A joint Air Berlin/Germania subsidiary dubbed Air Zürich and planned to be based at Zurich Airport was proposed in 2005, but did not materialize. In 2005, the Group reorganised its corporate structure. It established Air Berlin plc (registered in England) into which it reversed Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG and subsidiaries. It

6080-490: Was suggested that the reason for the group to establish a UK-based PLC instead of a German-based AG was to avoid the need to have a supervisory board and employee representation as required by the German law of Mitbestimmung or co-determination . In 2006, Air Berlin went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange . Originally scheduled for 5 May 2006, the IPO was postponed to 11 May 2006. The company said

6160-626: Was the agriculture business of Kim Lundgren's family in the United States. As a United States airline, Air Berlin was able to access the West Berlin airline market. During the Cold War , Berlin's special political status meant that the air corridors into and out of Tegel Airport could only be used by airlines registered in France, the United Kingdom or the United States. The airline's headquarters were initially at Tegel Airport. Leonard Lundgren

6240-664: Was the first chairman. After the company was issued an airline licence and acquired two Boeing 707 jet airliners previously owned by Trans World Airlines , Air Berlin USA commenced revenue services on 28 April 1979 with a flight from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca . Plans were made to start long-haul flights on West Berlin- Brussels -Florida routes, in cooperation with Air Florida (an agreement to that effect had been signed in February 1979). In 1980, two Boeing 737-200s were leased from Air Florida. In 1981, Air Berlin USA continued its weekly scheduled Boeing 707 service on

6320-417: Was the last base transferred from March 2014. As part of the 2013 restructuring and relaunch of Germanwings, around 30 Lufthansa aircraft were to be added to Germanwings' fleet of 33 aircraft. Additionally, the 23 aircraft currently operated by Eurowings for Lufthansa flights not flying out of Frankfurt and Munich were to join Germanwings. The new Germanwings was to operate around 90 aircraft. The airline had

6400-640: Was to abandon all scheduled flights and rely exclusively on the charter business. In March 2009, ESAS Holding A.S., a Turkish company, bought approximately 15 per cent of the voting shares in Air Berlin. Also in 2009, Air Berlin added Hartmut Mehdorn to the board of directors after his retirement at Deutsche Bahn . In April 2010 Air Berlin expanded its codeshare arrangements with Russia's S7 Airlines . Air Berlin and S7 Airlines had cooperated since October 2008. New services included codeshare flights via Moscow to Irkutsk , Perm and Rostov . In July 2010, Air Berlin announced an increase in its shareholding in

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