thbe

A company with an EBIT of EUR -667 million of a revenue of EUR 3,79 billion and a total equity of EUR -1.47 billion last year?

Hmmm....... no!

jeffhacker

Does Germany have an equivalent to the US Chapter 11 process which might allow AB to shed some debt, shrink some assets, and reorganize?

thbe

Yes, basically it's also possible under German law. But it doesn't work as good as under Chapter 11 in the US. The reason is, that under German law the management of the company loses his power and the insolvency trustee takes over control. The insolvency trustee is less interested in rescuing the company and often he hasn't the management skills for that.

But I don't think, that EY let AB go bankrupt. EY would not really save money by doing that, but will lose his bargaining power towards the German government and LH. But after Brexit and loosing the British government as EU internal support, EY's business with Europe depends on the goodwill of the German government. Plus after loosing AZ and AB they will need an European partner like LH. So a deal between German government, EY and LH is very likely.

Ber2dca

LH having a say in running AB is like letting a burglar install your alarm system.

Germany has done a 'terrible' job in privatizing its state companies. Whether it's the Post, Telekom, Bahn or Lufthansa..the vested interests ensured that these companies would dominate their respective industries and leave next to no room for competitors.

thbe

You mean, compared to EY, which is the selling company in that case?

yapak2

anyone can make sense of this?
Is that a supplier preparing for AB potentially not honouring all contractual obligations due to a change in ownership?

https://thefly.com/landingPageNews.p...erlin-contract

EuropeToAsia

I think this may be related to this:

https://m.airberlin.com/en/scms/cont...page/201405072

AB quoted better alignment with Etihad as one reason in 2014. And Etihad no longer seems keen to align much with AB...

El_Duderito

I have a bunch of TXL-JFK-TXL reservations on the now-canceled late flight. Based on a note on the AB system available to the agents they are allowed to rebook on AB and LH. They are not allowed to rebook onto BA (which would be the same alliance). For me that's a clear sign in what direction AB/LH want to go.

SK2751

I wouldn't take *this* as a sign (although there are clearly other signs). what they rebook onto depends on witch whom they have decent reprotection agreements. For years, AB has been rebooking me because of misconnects and cancellations. If found them reasonably good in this. In all but one cases I was rebooked to *A airline. The one case when they rebooked me onto another AB flight, this was because there was no more flights on the same day available (even with *A).

papyPiHi

Yup, Sabre potentially cancelling the migration to their PSS for the AB group.
word is in the industry that this migration, which was supposed to happen in Q3/16 is now planned for late 2018 at the earliest...

RolfD

Airberlin is not a German register company. Airberlin is register in London

yapak2

and with the potential merger between Niki and Tuifly off the cards as of today....does that mean that Sabre will have to take another impairment charge?

RolfD

Airberlin is not a german company, Air Berlin PLC, Air Berlin PLC & Co is a company register in the UK. an insolvence procedures are based on UK law

thbe

You are talking about Airberlin group. The airline Airberlin is a German company, Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, with headquarters in Berlin.

And I still think, that there won't be an insolvence of Airberlin anyway.

boerne

Gosh I hope not. I flew AB 2 years ago in J and it was decent. I hope it doesn't go away.