Air Berlin is making another trim to its fleet to reduce costs.
The fleet from a peak of 175 aircraft was due to be cut to 158. Air Berlin management is to trim the fleet further to 135 aircraft.
Other details about how Air Berlin is going to further reduce costs have yet to be disclosed, but it is clear that Air Berlin is hurting still from the non-opening of the new Berlin Airport.
For those who watch, Air Berlin has been playing around a bit – as well as being a Oneworld member, it is owned partially by Etihad, and also cooperates with Air France regarding codeshares.
Air Berline Chief commercial office – Paul Gregorowich says:
“We will not switch alliances,”
“The fact is that we like to work together with Air France, but we are clearly committed to oneworld. So far, we have gained 305,000 additional passengers through oneworld.”
Air Berlin hopes to extended its codeshares with Etihad to the east, whilst using Oneworld codeshares to extend itself to the USA.
For Air Berlin, some relief must come soon – or else it could have some real fun in the future…
I was looking forward to the new airport this summer, but had to go to TXL. The Lounge at TXL was very small and the airport was very cramped 🙁