NIKI and Air Berlin †two strong partners for Italy

Their summer timetable 2010 offers passengers up to 29 weekly non-stop connections between Austria and the Apennine Peninsula. From Vienna there are flights to the southern destinations of Bari, Cagliari, Lamezia Terme and Olbia. Passengers also have a greater choice of non-stop flights to Milan (eleven flights a week) and Rome (13 flights a week) from Vienna.

The new Sardinia services from Vienna to Olbia (two flights a week) and Cagliari (one flight a week) are key elements in the Italian route expansion of Air Berlin and its partner airline NIKI. Niki Lauda commented: “The expansion of our services to Italy allows us to offer our passengers an even greater choice and to reach even more customers with our business model. This is also a logical step in the further development of our route networks."

"Italy is a market of great significance to Air Berlin," confirmed Joachim Hunold, CEO Air Berlin, at the press conference in Vienna today. “We can see great development potential in Italy and are making use of this opportunity. By expanding our European and German domestic route network we are also opening up additional, attractive potential for our further growth,” continued Hunold.

From the summer timetable 2010 onwards, the extension of the route network provides for more non-stop and more frequent flights to Italy, as well as better flight connections for transfers from and to Spain and Israel. The hybrid business model with optimum accessibility to major European cities targets not only individual travellers, but also business customers and tour operators. In conjunction with its partner airline NIKI, Air Berlin is offering flights to 154 destinations in total this summer (summer 2009: 127). By optimising its hub structure, the airline is growing particularly fast in Berlin, with numerous convenient transfer options from this hub to regions such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Passengers also have an interesting choice of long-range flights from Düsseldorf to destinations that include North America and the Caribbean.

"Appassionante" – our musical ambassadors

The Air Berlin Group's advertising campaign for Italy will be accompanied over the next few years by "Appassionante", the three sopranos, who launched this particular initiative with a song composed especially for Air Berlin. The three classically trained singers joined forces in 2002 for the "Appassionante" cross-over project. Since then they have created their own unique and powerful combination of classical and popular music.

Stefania Francabandiera comes from the port of Barletta in Apulia, a region in south-eastern Italy, and was trained as a classical singer in Bari. Before setting up Appassionante, Stefania had already worked with some great pop artists, including Zucchero and Eros Ramazzotti.

Mara Tanchis was born in Sardinia. She graduated from the Conservatory in Bologna with such outstanding success that she even made it to the Vatican and was asked to sing for the Pope.

Giorgia Villa is from Rome and grew up to the south of the city. She studied classical and modern music in London. She worked at a very high standard there and sang with stars such as Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams.