It’s been nearly six years since Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations, but news this week brings with it the possibility of the resurrection of the brand.
Simpleflying.com reports that the trademark rights to the Air Berlin name have been purchased by Marcos Rossello, founder and CEO of German charter carrier Sundair.
Sundair operates charter flights from German bases including Berlin Brandenburg, Bremen, Dresden and Kassel airports.
Of course Air Berlin never had the opportunity to fly from Berlin Brandenburg – I attended a media event at the airport back in March 2012 ahead of what was meant to be the grand opening in June of that year, but a series of delays led to the airport eventually opening nearly a decade later, by which time Air Berlin had long since ceased operating.
Air Berlin was founded in 1978 as a charter airline serving US destinations, and at its peak grew to become Germany’s second largest scheduled carrier.
Etihad took a 29.1 per cent stake in the airline in 2011, and the following year joined the oneworld alliance. In 2013 it launched a fully-flat business class product on its A330 aircraft.
But by 2016 the decision had been made to downsize the loss-making carrier, and in August 2017 it was forced to file for bankruptcy, before grounding all flights a few months later.
Lufthansa and easyJet both took on former Air Berlin aircraft and employees, and in 2018 Virgin Atlantic also leased a number of the defunct carrier’s A330 aircraft due to issues at the time with the Rolls Royce engines on some of Virgin’s B787 aircraft.
Fast forward to today and Berlin’s Tegel and Schonefeld airports are gone, with Berlin Brandenburg (BER) now the city’s sole international airport.
EasyJet, Eurowings and Ryanair are all major players at BER, while start-up carrier Norse Atlantic is set to launch flights between Berlin and Miami this winter – could a “new” Air Berlin find a way of succeeding where its predecessor ultimately failed?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below – we’ll report further on the Air Berlin brand as more information becomes available.
