Airberlin‘s (Berlin) CEO Hartmut Mehdorn has reacted with sharp criticism to the announcement that the
new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) will be delayed until March 17, 2013. The company issued the following statement:

“This is totally unacceptable and does almost irreparable and therefore intolerable reputational damage to Berlin as an airport hub. The flight schedule with the planned long-haul destinations which were to start in winter can scarcely be implemented. The same applies to additional planned destinations overseas. With much difficulty, we would have accepted the BER postponement to October; this would have been possible only with great effort and expenditure. But this latest decision will have a deep impact on the business operations of the market leader.

We have promised to provide our passengers, our oneworld® alliance and our strategic partner Etihad Airways with good service even during the transition in Berlin. This has now been postponed indefinitely. Instead, we must continue with the much too small, completely inappropriate Tegel Airport. The postponement hits Airberlin a lot harder than the other airlines that fly to Berlin. Airberlin, with a market share of around 33 percent, is the only airline with a hub and thus a growing number of connecting passengers in Berlin. The proportion of connecting passengers last summer reached 23 percent. The planned construction of a hub, wherein six daily waves of Airberlin planes could approach Berlin from all directions and passengers could quickly transfer and continue flying, was tailored to BER and is hardly feasible at Tegel.

The postponement of the opening by several months is no longer explicable purely based on fire protection measures. As a result, we incur not only an economic loss but also damage to our hub’s image, which is financially incalculable.”

In other news, the company has unveiled a new football (soccer) logo (see picture below).

On the financial side, Airberlin reported a net loss of $132 million in the first quarter of 2012. The airline issued this statement:

Germany’s second largest airline can draw positive conclusions from its first quarter of 2012. On presenting Airberlin’s interim report, CEO Hartmut Mehdorn announced: “Although it’s too early to celebrate, we can clearly see our “Shape and Size” program beginning to produce results – we’re starting to step up our efficiency and reap the benefit of lower costs ahead of our competition. And as a result, nearly all the indicators of significance for our business are pointing in the right direction.”

Despite systematically reducing capacity by 10.5%, it has been possible to increase sales figures in the traditionally hardest quarter for the German airline industry by 4% to 812.9 million euros (781.6 million euros) compared with the same quarter of the previous year. Capacity utilization went up by 3.9 percentage points to 76.4% (72.5%). These are the best results recorded for the first quarter since airberlin was listed on the stock exchange. Yield (income per passenger) rose by 7.3% to 109.8 euros (102.4 euros). EBITDAR (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, Amortisation and Rent) improved by 128% to 7.2 million euros (-25.7 euros), EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) went up 20.7% to -149.3 million euros ( 188.3 million euros), and net loss went down by 14.6% to -102.9 million euros (-120.6 million euros).

“Although costs for fuel have gone up to 35.2 million euros and for aviation tax to 4.2 million euros, we’ve managed to improve EBIT by nearly 40 million euros”, announced airberlin CFO Ulf Hüttmeyer. The following conclusions can clearly be drawn from this: Everyone in the company has understood that our efficiency program is the number one task for management. Despite systematically reducing capacity by more than 10%, passenger numbers have only gone down by 5.8% to 6.5 million. As Hüttmeyer explains: “Our results show that the number of passengers on its own bears almost no relevance to profitability – it’s much more important to ensure that capacity on our aircraft is fully utilised.”

Mehdorn again called for aviation tax to be abolished: “It puts German airlines at an unfair disadvantage in an international arena that is already difficult.”

Top Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems.

Airberlin Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Bottom Copyright Photo: Javier Rodriguez. Airberlin has applied special decals to its Boeing 737-86J D-ABMB (msn 36121) to celebrate the double winner (“double sieger”) of BVB Borussia Dortmund. The German football (soccer) team won this season the Bundesliga (Germany first division championship) and the German Cup.

Airberlin (airberlin.com) (Berlin) reported its net loss in 2011 widened to $348 million due to the Arab Spring and increasing fuel costs.

Here is the official statement of the airline: CLICK HERE

Read the analysis by Bloomberg BusinessWeek: CLICK HERE

Copyright Photo: Rob Skinkis.

Airberlin Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Airberlin (Berlin) is to significantly increase the number of flights to Abu Dhabi, Bangkok and Phuket from March 25. Germany’s second largest airline already operates four flights a week from Berlin to
Abu Dhabi. From March 25, Airberlin will fly daily from Berlin and Dusseldorf to Phuket via Abu Dhabi. Since January Airberlin customers have been able to take daily flights from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok with codeshare partner Etihad Airways. Airberlin is dropping its long-range routes to Thailand in order to code-share with Etihad Airways via Abu Dhabi.

In other news, Airberlin on March 20, 2012 will become a full member of the oneworld® alliance. The Austrian airline Niki (Vienna), which is part of the Airberlin group, will join oneworld at the same time as an affiliate member.

Finally with the launch of the new airport at Berlin Brandenburg (BER), Airberlin will offer flights to five long-haul destinations from the capital. As well as Miami and the daily flight to New York, these will include Los Angeles, Windhoek and Abu Dhabi. Airberlin is planning to develop the new BER airport into an international hub.

Airberlin’s market share in the German capital is approximately 33 percent. This has led to a six-fold increase in the number of passengers since 2004. With 7.9 million customers, Airberlin is clearly number one in Berlin. Passenger volume in Berlin is expected to reach 12 to 13 million by the year 2020.

With a long-haul Airbus A330-200 bearing the logo of the new airport, Airberlin is flying around the world with the message “BER Berlin Brandenburg Airport – Europe’s most modern airport”, thereby representing its new home base airport which will lead to future growth for the company.

Airberlin is planning up to 750 weekly departures for the upcoming summer. Airberlin offers its passengers a total of nearly 70 direct flights and over 10,500 indirect flights from Berlin. Up to 40 aircraft will be in operation at Berlin Brandenburg.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB) (Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt) is a new international airport under construction 11 miles south of central Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It is scheduled to open on June 3, 2012. The airport is located in Schönefeld on the border between the states of Berlin and Brandenburg and will be named after the former Berlin Mayor, German Chancellor and Nobel Peace Laureate Willy Brandt.

The new airport will replace three airports in Berlin. Tempelhof Airport closed in 2008. The exisiting Tegel Airport is scheduled to close in 2012. The terminal infrastructure of the existing Berlin Schönefeld Airport will be closed in 2012 while some of the airport’s infrastructure will be incorporated into the greatly expanded airport area to the south. The airport will inherit Schönefeld’s existing southern runway, which will become the new airport’s northern runway. Due to noise-abatement regulations, flights between midnight (2400) and 5:00 a.m. (0500) will not be permitted.

The initial capacity of the airport is designed to serve 30–50 million passengers.

Top copyright Photo: Ton Jochmes.

Airberlin Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Niki Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Bottom Copyright Photo: Terry Wade.

Airberlin (Berlin) is working hard to become more efficient as the cost of fuel rises. Fuel efficiency has improved by another 1.5 percent for 2011.

The company has issued this report:

“Airberlin ended 2011 by setting a new record. Germany’s second largest airline managed to improve its fuel efficiency by another 1.5%, reducing its average specific fuel consumption to 3.5 liters per 100 passenger kilometers flown (PKM). This means that airberlin uses less fuel per service operated than any other network carrier in Europe.

During a presentation in Dusseldorf on Friday, Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of airberlin, commented that “Environmental protection has become one of the criteria of competitiveness. The careful use of resources leads to a sustainable reduction in costs and has a beneficial impact on the environment. Customers view this as providing added value, an area which airberlin would like to develop further.”

The savings made in 2011 amounted to nearly 19,800 tons of fuel over the 12 months, which corresponds to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 62,000 tons. This record-breaking achievement is the result of efforts made within the company. A large contribution to the new savings has been made by measures which provide more precise and up-to-date information for flight operations, such as weather, temperatures or flight path. The optimisation of flight times on turboprop and jet aircraft and a more refined approach to aircraft loading also help to reduce fuel consumption. airberlin has also succeeded in standardising other measures with its partner airlines, such as the washing of engines, and in doing so has strengthened its activity aimed at protecting the environment.

In the field of air traffic, fuel is one of the most significant factors, alongside political policy, which drive prices upwards. Reducing fuel consumption is therefore a matter of utmost importance. Environmental protection is given top priority at airberlin. In 2012, the company aims to reduce its average specific fuel consumption to 3.4 liters per 100 PKM. This corresponds to an additional reduction of 100,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions.”

The rising cost of fuel on a worldwide basis is going to cull out those airlines which are not as efficient. It will be a survival of the fittest.

Copyright Photo: Nick Dean.

Airberlin Slide Show: CLICK HERE

Airberlin (Airberlin.com) Boeing 737-86J WL D-ABBF (msn 32917) NUE (Gunter Mayer), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Airberlin (Berlin) will be the first airline in Europe to use satellite-based landings on regular flights at Bremen Airport. The German carrier announced on February 10, 2012 the German Federal Office for Air Traffic Control’s approved the accreditation of the Bremen ground station for the new satellite-based approach and landing system GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System) as a primary landing system.

Since 2008, the German Air Traffic Control Authority (DFS) has been working closely with airberlin on the development of the new system. In November 2009, airberlin was the first airline worldwide to receive approval for its Boeing 737 Next Generation fleet to use the GBAS on landings up to a visual range of only 550 meters.

The new satellite-based landing system is much more precise than the instrument- based landing system (ILS) which has been used until now. Other advantages of GBAS landings are that noise pollution on the ground is reduced because approach angles can be varied and in the future it will be possible to use the system in mountainous areas, where it was not previously possible to land using the instrument-based landing system.

On the evening of February 9, 2012 the company completed the first successful landing in Bremen following the accreditation.

Copyright Photo: Gunter Mayer.

Airberlin Photo Gallery: CLICK HERE