German carrier Air Berlin has announced a raft of route cuts to cities including Manchester and London, as part of a “Shape and Size” programme aimed at returning the airline to profitability.
The move will see a reduction in capacity of over one million seats in the second half of this year, with eight aircraft leaving the fleet.
Among the UK routes being cut are Munster/Onasbruck-London, Hanover-London, and Paderborn-London/Manchester. The carrier will also cancel flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg/Naples, Stuttgart and St Petersburg, Munich and Cairo, and Dusseldorf and Paris.
CEO Joachim Hunold, who tendered his resignation almost immediately after unveiling the restructuring programme, blamed the carrier’s current lack of profitability on increases in taxes and fuel prices, and called for Germany’s aviation tax to be abolished “as soon as possible”.
Hunold also cited a decline in North Africa-related business due to recent unrest in the region, saying that “for weeks on end” there were no flights to Egypt, a destination the carrier normally serves with around 80 flights per week.
He calculated that losses from capacity reductions to the North Africa region alone has amounted to €20 million for the second quarter of this year.
The “Shape and Size” programme will see the carrier partially withdraw from regional airports, concentrating on its successful hubs at Berlin, Dusseldorf, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna.
However Hunold said that Air Berlin was “on the right track towards consolidation”, with increased yields and load factors in the second quarter of this year, and reductions in costs (excluding aviation tax and fuel).
The carrier will offer more flight connections and frequencies from its Vienna hub this winter, including destinations to Eastern Europe.
The news comes ahead of Air Berlin’s inauguration into the Oneworld alliance early next year (see online news July 27, 2010). The carrier recently announced a codeshare agreement with Oneworld founder member BA (see online news June 14), although several of the codeshare routes are among those between the UK and Germany which Air Berlin has now announced will be cancelled.
For more information visit airberlin.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
