While Air Berlin navigates bankruptcy through the German legal system, it has announced that cuts to under-performing long haul routes will take place almost immediately. The decision comes as a result of a dramatic fall-off in bookings that has taken place since the bankruptcy announcement.
As far as I can tell, here are the canceled routes:
Berlin – Abu Dhabi will be canceled beginning September 17.
Berlin – Chicago will be canceled beginning September 30.
Berlin – Los Angeles will be canceled October 1.
Berlin – San Francisco will be canceled October 1.
Dusseldorf – Boston will be canceled October 1.
For now flights from Berlin to Miami and New York (JFK) remain unaffected as do flights from Dusseldorf to Boston, Fort Myers, Orlando, New York, and Miami. Also unaffected at this point are flights from Dusseldorf to Cancun, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata, Varadero, Curacao, and Havana. I suspect these aforementioned routes won’t stay on the timetable for long but at this point AB plans to operated them as scheduled.
It is widely expected that Lufthansa will come away with a significant stake in Air Berlin after negotiations are completed between the German government, Air Berlin, and Lufthansa. It also appears that Easyjet will stand to benefit from certain Air Berlin assets as well. At this point it appears that Ryanair is the odd man out and will not be a benefactor of AB’s bankruptcy.
