When a carrier announces it’s having a “shape and size” rethink, you know there’s a major reorganisation afoot. And alas, it’s Air Berlin who is doing this.
In an effort to turn around the airline and return it to profitability, routes are be cancelled left right and centre including
Munster – London
Onasbruck – London
Hanover – London
Paderborn – London
Paderborn – Manchester
Frankfurt – Hamburg
Frankfurt – Naples
Stuttgart – St Petersburg
Munich – Cairo
Düsseldorf – Paris.
In addition, Air Berlin is removing 1 million seats in capacity – in the form of 8 planes to be withdrawn.
With these cuts comes a price, and it came with the CEO Joachim Hunold, tendering his resignation blaming the German Aviation tax (akin to APD), fuel rises (the current bogeyman), and issues in the North Africa region where flights have been cut.
Shape and Size will also hit the regional airport in Germany, so expect more cuts there too.
Well, Air Berlin has been expanding like a bad spiderweb. Unfortunately, it seems that they got tangled a bit too much in it….
