Air Berlin to Reduce Capacity, Fleet

Air Berlin has announced that it will reduce capacity and remove 14 short and medium-distance planes from service, in particular older models that have especially high fuel consumption per seat kilometer at the start of the winter flight schedule, in order to absorb part of the increased kerosene cost.

The airline said that, instead of having 134 airplanes in service, as originally planned, only 120 are to remain in service at the end of 2008. Of the long-distance planes, four wide-body Airbus A330 jet airliners will be removed from service. Three of these 330-300s will be put into service on medium-distance flights, mainly departing from the Nuremberg hub in Germany.

The airline will suspend flight connections from Dusseldorf, Germany, to New York over the winter of 2008.

The flight connections to Beijing and Shanghai, in China, will be suspended over the 2008-09 winter. Moreover, the number of flights to Cape Town, South Africa; Windhoek, Namibia, and Bangkok, Thailand, will be reduced during the winter season. Flights to Mauritius and Sri Lanka will also be suspended.

Joachim Hunold, CEO of Air Berlin, said: “If we were required to fly via the longer southern route, it would no longer be competitive, seeing the current price of kerosene.”