Air Berlin Files for Bankruptcy
Aug 15, 2017, 2:49 pm
#76
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Why am I only seeing mentions of Central Europe - there's Eastern Europe, too. AB used to have 1 daily flight - although in the evening, which made connections to the US impossible without overnighting in Berlin but at least it was an option to having to book with BA - many places besides the East Coast still require an overnight in London but their fees are so high, it's a non-starter. And if you try to get anywhere in Europe, first, you have to pray that the routing is allowed, i. e. going all the way west to LHR and then to go east to your final destination, then, that you can afford to spend several hours in the air many times over what a direct flight would be. All IAG airlines are based so far west, they are useless for Eastern and Central European residents. S7 can't be viewed as quite European, although that's technically correct. So, we're left with AY, which is in a good location but has such a limited network that only suits residents of Finland. So, OW coverage of Europe is awful - it was bad enough with AB but without it, it's tragic.
Aug 15, 2017, 3:18 pm
#77
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All the AB hubs are served by several other other oneworld carriers.
Aug 15, 2017, 3:21 pm
#78
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UK is 10 times smaller market than the continental Europe. I am frankly surprised with investment decisions of IAG.
Aug 15, 2017, 3:23 pm
#79
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Aug 15, 2017, 3:33 pm
#80
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Official EU figures show the UK accounted for 232 million air passengers in 2015 - by far the largest of any of the EU28.
The UK accounts for 25% of all air passengers in the EU.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statist...ort_statistics
Aug 15, 2017, 3:35 pm
#81
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Aug 15, 2017, 3:42 pm
#82
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Your alternatives are of course garbage and that's another reason why this bankruptcy is bad.
Aug 15, 2017, 3:47 pm
#83
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There is no money to be made in European point-to-point traffic - unless you have a low cost base like the LCCs.
Oneworld will still be able to serve westbound traffic from most points in Europe to support the lucrative TATL routes. Oneworld never exactly embraced AB and will not be upset at not being able to offer optimal point-to-point connections to Central European residents.
Oneworld will still be able to serve westbound traffic from most points in Europe to support the lucrative TATL routes. Oneworld never exactly embraced AB and will not be upset at not being able to offer optimal point-to-point connections to Central European residents.
Aug 15, 2017, 3:56 pm
#84
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Originally Posted by The Guardian
[Ryanair] lodged a competition complaint on Tuesday with German authorities and the European commission over what it claimed was “the obvious conspiracy” between the German government, Lufthansa and Air Berlin to carve up Air Berlin’s assets, excluding competitors and ignoring EU competition and state aid rules.
A Ryanair spokesman said: “This is clearly being set up for Lufthansa to take over Air Berlin, which will be in breach of all known German and EU competition rules. Now even the German government is supporting this Lufthansa-led deal with €150m of state aid. German customers and visitors will suffer higher air fares to pay for this Lufthansa monopoly.”
Analysts said a Lufthansa takeover would indeed mainly be to thwart the likes of Ryanair. Damian Brewer, of RBS, said: “For Lufthansa we see any moves as defensive – blocking other more competitive airlines from expanding. If acquired, Air Berlin’s Düsseldorf airport slots would likely be a valuable asset to Lufthansa while freezing new entrants out of the ‘full’ airport, unless the German authorities require slots to be surrendered to new entrants.”
A Ryanair spokesman said: “This is clearly being set up for Lufthansa to take over Air Berlin, which will be in breach of all known German and EU competition rules. Now even the German government is supporting this Lufthansa-led deal with €150m of state aid. German customers and visitors will suffer higher air fares to pay for this Lufthansa monopoly.”
Analysts said a Lufthansa takeover would indeed mainly be to thwart the likes of Ryanair. Damian Brewer, of RBS, said: “For Lufthansa we see any moves as defensive – blocking other more competitive airlines from expanding. If acquired, Air Berlin’s Düsseldorf airport slots would likely be a valuable asset to Lufthansa while freezing new entrants out of the ‘full’ airport, unless the German authorities require slots to be surrendered to new entrants.”
Aug 15, 2017, 4:32 pm
#86
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Well, the issue here is that once some of these frequent flyers switch to *A on European flights, they may stick with it even on longhaul.
Aug 15, 2017, 4:44 pm
#87
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Indeed...and there is little they can do, other than offer status matches ŕ la Malev.
Many airberlin longhaul customers were more likely to transfer onto Etihad than a oneworld airline for longhaul sectors, anyway. AB was never part of the OW TATL JV so there was not much cooperation for westbound trips; and for eastbound trips, it was Etihad, rather than Finnair, that was the main partner.
From media reports, it appears that Easyjet and Lufthansa are the two airlines currently in talks with AB and the German government.
Many airberlin longhaul customers were more likely to transfer onto Etihad than a oneworld airline for longhaul sectors, anyway. AB was never part of the OW TATL JV so there was not much cooperation for westbound trips; and for eastbound trips, it was Etihad, rather than Finnair, that was the main partner.
From media reports, it appears that Easyjet and Lufthansa are the two airlines currently in talks with AB and the German government.
Aug 15, 2017, 6:54 pm
#89
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Aug 15, 2017, 8:37 pm
#90
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