Air Berlin: the rise and bankruptcy of Germany’s second-largest airline

Red tail fins at Tegel, chocolate hearts as you left the plane, and a Mallorca shuttle that took half of Germany to the beach every summer: for almost four decades, Air Berlin was part of everyday life in German skies. In its best years it was Germany’s second-largest airline; in the fall of 2017 it was history. This article tells the story from the American charter company in divided Berlin to the farewell flight AB6210 – and shows what still makes that history interesting for spotters today.

Air Berlin in brief

Air Berlin was a German airline headquartered in Berlin with hubs at Berlin Tegel and Düsseldorf. Legally, it was ultimately a British public limited company with its registered office in London and its administrative headquarters in Berlin. It flew to leisure destinations around the Mediterranean, operated a dense domestic and European network and, from Berlin and Düsseldorf, long-haul routes, mainly to North America. It had been a member of the oneworld alliance since 2012; its IATA code was AB and its ICAO code BER.

1978 to 1990: a US airline for West Berlin

The roots of Air Berlin lie not in Germany but in the USA. Until reunification, West Berlin was subject to Allied control of its airspace: only companies from the three Western powers were allowed to operate flights into and out of the city. German airlines such as Lufthansa were excluded from Berlin traffic. Anyone who wanted to fly from Tegel therefore needed an American, British or French license.

The US pilot Kim Lundgren, who had previously worked for Pan Am, took advantage of exactly this gap. In July 1978, he founded Air Berlin Inc. as a charter airline with a US license. On April 28, 1979, the first flight took off with a Boeing 707 from Berlin Tegel to Palma de Mallorca – a route that shaped Air Berlin for almost four decades afterward. In 1981, two smaller Boeing 737s replaced the two 707s.

In those years, Air Berlin was a classic leisure airline: tour operators bought the seats, and the destinations were on the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. If you want to read up on the history of its home airport at the time, you will find it in the article about Berlin Tegel Airport.

1991 to 2005: from charter airline to Mallorca shuttle

With reunification, Allied control of the airspace fell away – and with it the reason for the US construction. On April 16, 1991, Joachim Hunold and Kim Lundgren founded the German Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, which took over Air Berlin Inc. Hunold led the company until 2011 and shaped it like hardly anyone else.

The 1990s were defined by two ideas. First: direct sales. In 1998, Air Berlin offered around ten percent of its seats directly to end customers for the first time instead of only through tour operators. Second: the Mallorca shuttle. From 1998, Air Berlin initially connected Berlin, Düsseldorf and Paderborn with Palma daily; more German airports were added later, where a connecting hub for onward flights to mainland Spain emerged. Palma de Mallorca Airport became a kind of third hub for years; if you spot there today, the Mallorca guide lists the right locations. In 1999, Air Berlin became a member of IATA.

When Ryanair and other low-cost carriers pushed into Germany in the early 2000s, Air Berlin responded in September 2002 with the City Shuttle: cheap one-way tickets on city routes, but with seat reservations, in-flight catering and baggage. This mix of low-cost prices and service became a trademark. In 2004, Air Berlin took a 24 percent stake in the Austrian airline Niki, run by the former racing driver Niki Lauda.

2006 to 2008: IPO and acquisitions

The IPO on May 11, 2006, raised around 510 million euros for Air Berlin – and the money for a phase of rapid expansion.

• dba (2006): In August 2006, Air Berlin took over the Munich-based dba, the former Deutsche BA. With it came business travel routes, a strong base in Munich and Fokker 100s for the fleet. The dba brand disappeared from the market as early as 2007.
• LTU (2007): On March 27, 2007, Air Berlin announced the takeover of LTU International, and the Federal Cartel Office approved it in August 2007 without conditions. This gave Air Berlin long-haul flying, Airbus A330s and a strong position in Düsseldorf all at once. LTU was fully integrated as of April 1, 2011.
• Belair (2007): In the same year, Air Berlin acquired 49 percent of the Swiss charter airline Belair, with full control following in 2009.
• Condor (called off): In September 2007, Air Berlin announced that it also wanted to take over Condor. The plan was abandoned in July 2008.

In June 2007, Air Berlin presented a revised livery, and in early 2008 a new logo and new titles followed. For spotters, this was an exciting time because former LTU and dba aircraft were flying around for months in mixed and transitional paint schemes – how to recognize such intermediate stages is explained in the guide to hybrid liveries.

With the acquisitions, however, complexity grew too. Air Berlin was a leisure airline, a budget carrier, a business travel airline and a long-haul carrier all at once – with Airbus and Boeing fleets, turboprops and different fare structures. Retrospectives often cite this blurred business model as one of the causes of the later problems.

The fleet at a glance

If you want to collect Air Berlin in your hangar, you are dealing with a surprisingly varied fleet. The following table shows the most important types of the later years.

Type	Role at Air Berlin	Fleet in August 2017
Airbus A320	Backbone of short- and medium-haul	65
Airbus A319	smaller routes, medium-haul	11
Airbus A321	busy leisure routes	6
Airbus A330-200	long-haul, partly from LTU	17
Boeing 737-800	long the workhorse of the leisure fleet	8
Boeing 737-700	short- and medium-haul	5
Dash 8-400	regional service operated by LGW	20

The historic fleet also included Boeing 737-400s (1990–2007) and Fokker 100s (2004–2010). If you want to tell the A320 family apart in the field, you will find the features in the guide How to tell the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart.

2009 to 2015: Etihad, oneworld and the BER waiting room

At the end of the 2000s, Air Berlin kept posting losses. The solution came from the Gulf: in December 2011, Etihad Airways raised its stake from 2.99 to 29.21 percent, becoming the largest single shareholder. Air Berlin became part of the network of equity stakes with which Etihad gained access to markets in Europe – a business model that the article on Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad puts into context in more detail.

Almost simultaneously, Air Berlin made the switch from leisure airline to network airline. Its accession to oneworld was announced in July 2010 and completed on March 20, 2012. Together with partners such as American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia, Air Berlin wanted to build Berlin into a connecting hub. Long-haul routes to Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and other destinations in North America rounded out the network; how alliances work is explained in the overview Star Alliance, oneworld and SkyTeam.

The plan had a catch: the new capital airport. Air Berlin wanted to build its hub at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, whose opening was at one point scheduled for June 2012. The delay of several years forced the airline to run a connecting system at Tegel – an airport whose compact hexagonal terminal had never been designed for transfer traffic on that scale.

There was turmoil at the top, too. Hunold stepped down in 2011, followed in quick succession by Hartmut Mehdorn (2011–2013), Wolfgang Prock-Schauer (2013–2014), Stefan Pichler (2015–2017) and finally Thomas Winkelmann. Etihad supported Air Berlin several times during this period, including by buying 70 percent of the Topbonus frequent flyer program in December 2012 for 184 million euros.

2016 to 2017: downsizing, wet lease and insolvency

In September 2016, Air Berlin announced a far-reaching restructuring: the airline wanted to reposition itself as a network carrier with long-haul flights from Berlin and Düsseldorf, with a much smaller core fleet. The rest was handed off:

• Wet lease to the Lufthansa Group: From February 2017, Air Berlin flew 38 A320-family jets with crew for Eurowings (33 aircraft) and Austrian Airlines (5). The first aircraft took off on February 10, 2017, in Eurowings colors. What lies behind this type of contract is explained in the article Wet lease explained.
• Niki: In December 2016, Air Berlin announced it would sell shares in its Austrian subsidiary to Etihad; Niki was to be contributed to a joint venture with TUIfly. The plan was never carried out.

On August 11, 2017, Etihad declared that it would no longer finance Air Berlin. Four days later, on August 15, 2017, the airline filed for insolvency under self-administration. A bridge loan of 150 million euros backed by a federal guarantee kept flights going while buyers were sought for the individual parts. On October 15, 2017, the last long-haul flight from Miami landed in Düsseldorf.

Who got what

There was no single buyer. On October 12, 2017, the Lufthansa Group agreed on a package including Niki, the regional subsidiary LGW (Luftfahrtgesellschaft Walter) and additional aircraft. Lufthansa withdrew the Niki part on December 13, 2017, after the EU Commission signaled concerns. Niki ceased operations on December 14, 2017; the remains went to Laudamotion, the company of Niki Lauda, in January 2018. easyJet took over parts of the operation at Tegel, including 25 leased A320s, for 40 million euros. The maintenance division and the cargo subsidiary Leisure Cargo went to other buyers, including the Zeitfracht Group.

For Air Berlin itself, the insolvency proceedings were opened on November 1, 2017. Compared with other collapses in the industry, such as Germania in 2019, the end of Air Berlin ranks among the biggest airline failures in Europe – more in the overview Major airline bankruptcies in Europe.

The last flight: AB6210

On the evening of October 27, 2017, the Airbus A320 D-ABNW took off in Munich for the airline’s last flight on its own account: AB6210 to Berlin Tegel, using the radio callsign BER4EVR. The flight departed about an hour late. Before landing, the crew flew a loop over Berlin in the shape of a stylized heart – an image that many fans followed live on flight tracking services. Shortly before midnight, the aircraft touched down at Tegel.

For many spotters, that evening was a must-see event. After that, the aircraft went one by one to lessors and new operators.

What the history means for spotters

Today, Air Berlin is a subject for photo archives, logbooks and collectors. A few starting points:

• Special liveries: Air Berlin had numerous special paint schemes, such as “Air Berlin/Etihad” on D-ABDU, the oneworld livery on the A330 D-ABXA, “Discover America” on D-ABNB or “Flying home for Christmas” on D-ABNM. The article Special liveries of German airlines gives an overview of similar designs.
• The aircraft’s second life: Many Air Berlin jets moved to Eurowings, easyJet and other operators. Using the registration or the serial number, you can often trace an aircraft’s history quite well – the guide Find an aircraft by registration shows how.
• Places of remembrance: Tegel has been closed since November 2020, and the airport lives on only in pictures – see the profile Berlin Tegel Airport. At Düsseldorf Airport, the second hub, Air Berlin was the defining airline for years; the Düsseldorf observation deck was a classic place for red-and-white photos – current tips are in the guide Plane spotting in Düsseldorf.
• Hybrid transition periods: During the months of the wet lease, Air Berlin aircraft flew with Air Berlin crews, some already in Eurowings colors. Details like these make photos from that period valuable to collectors.

Timeline at a glance

Year	Event
1978	Air Berlin Inc. founded by Kim Lundgren in the USA
1979	First flight Berlin Tegel – Palma with a Boeing 707 (April 28)
1991	Refounded as the German Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG with Joachim Hunold
2002	Launch of the City Shuttle
2004	Stake in Niki
2006	IPO and takeover of dba
2007	Takeover of LTU, stake in Belair
2011	Etihad becomes the largest single shareholder with 29.21 percent, Hunold steps down
2012	Joins oneworld (March 20)
2017	Wet lease to Eurowings and Austrian, insolvency filing (August 15), last flight AB6210 (October 27)

Conclusion

Air Berlin was a child of divided Berlin that, after the fall of the Wall, grew into one of Europe’s largest airlines. Its success rested on a clever mix of leisure flying, low prices and service – and that very mix later became the problem when acquisitions, long-haul flying and network ambitions were added. Without Etihad’s money, the model was no longer viable in 2017. What remains are memories, photo archives and many aircraft that now fly under other names.