Airline Code [BER]
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Tags :Continental Europe, Air Berlin
In order to absorb part of the increased fuel cost, Air Berlin Plc has designed a cost reduction package to be implemented at the start of the Winter flight schedule. The programme comprises capacity reductions as well as organisational measures. Instead of having 134 aircraft in service, as originally planned, only 120 are to remain in service at the end of the year.
CEO Joachim Hunold has stated the fact that Air Berlin aims to increase its fleet capacity utilisation does not necessarily entail a reduction in the anticipated number of passengers transported.
With the beginning of the Winter flight schedule, Air Berlin aims to remove 14 short- and medium-distance aircraft from service, in particular older models that have an especially high fuel consumption per seat kilometre. Of the long-distance aircraft, four Airbus A330s will be removed from service. Three of these 330-300s will be put into service on medium-distance flights, mainly departing from the Nuremberg hub. The fourth Airbus A330 will serve as a stand-in for scheduled maintenance intervals and will also be used for shuttling passengers to cruise departure ports all over the world.
The flight connections to Beijing and Shanghai, which were inaugurated on 01-May-08, will be suspended over the Winter of 2008/2009. The main reason is the as yet unresolved issue of overflight rights over Russia. Hunold said "If we were required to fly via the longer southern route, it would no longer be competitive, seeing the current price of kerosene". He also pointed out that the more stringent visa regulations implemented by China in the run-up to the Olympic Games did not exactly make travel to China more appealing. A potential reinstatement of these flight connections by the summer of 2009 will be decided, if and when new circumstances warrant it.
The flight connections from Düsseldorf to New York will be suspended over the Winter. Moreover, the number of flights to Cape Town, Windhoek and Bangkok will be reduced during the Winter season. Flights to Mauritius and Sri Lanka will also be suspended.
Conversely, flight frequencies to destinations that are particularly high in demand will be increased. These destinations include Florida (Miami and Fort Myers), Cancun (Mexico), Male (the Maldives) and Montego Bay (Jamaica). Flights to the Azores are the latest addition to the carrier’s flight programme. In total, fleet capacity utilisation will be reduced by 10%; on long-distance flights, even by 30%. According to Hunold, business flights are more likely to be increased.
Meanwhile, at the end of Oct-08, the Munich-based administrative seat of dba Luftfahrtgesellschaft will be dissolved. For the remaining 52 employees, a social compensation plan has been agreed on, in consultation with the staff association. In the future, the administration of dba will be based in Berlin. dba was taken over by Air Berlin in Aug-06. The technical staff of the Munich-based company was already taken over by Air Berlin Luftfahrttechnik Berlin GmbH on 01-Jan-08.
© Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 19-Jun-08
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Air Berlin launches efficiency programme; fleet to be reduced in Winter 
