JUSTIN WASTNAGE / BERLIN
German charter carrier Air Berlin is to retain five Boeing 737-400s scheduled to leave its fleet this month as it expands its low-fares scheduled operation City Shuttle.
The new division launched initial services from six German airports - Dortmund, Berlin Tegel, Hamburg, Münster-Osnabrück, Nuremberg and Paderborn - to London Stansted late last month. Managing director Elke Schütt says that although Air Berlin has run a fares-only shuttle from several German regional airports to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for two years, it had not considered launching services to London until the managing director of Paderborn Lippstadt airport approached Air Berlin in August to warn it of interest from Ryanair, whose offer it rejected. New rivals, such as Eurowings' Germanwings and TUI's Hapag-Lloyd Express are starting services from Cologne-Bonn Airport.
Air Berlin had established bases at several secondary airports in the densely populated German state of North Rhine-Westphalia when the ban on Berlin-based carriers operating in the rest of Germany was lifted following reunification in 1992. The airline is keen to "protect" its investment, says Schütt. Air Berlin is also the largest carrier from Dortmund Airport, where the board had been under pressure to attract low-cost carriers, she adds.
The airline, which sells around 35% of its seats on a fares-only basis, says that it was able to reorganise its fleet plan within one month. Having originally planned to move to an all-737-800 fleet by the end of this year, it has now extended the lease of its five 737-400s to run the new services. The airline is set to receive three remaining 737-800s by March to take the total fleet to 32 aircraft.
Schütt says that although Boeing has tentatively offered the carrier white tail aircraft, "its price is still too high". Schütt adds that it requires winglet-equipped, high gross weight variants with in-flight entertainment systems for its operations, which Boeing is "less keen to discount". Instead Air Berlin will lease aircraft if it needs extra capacity.
The airline's strategy is to operate City Shuttle from German airports which do not have a low-cost carrier, including Nuremberg, 100km (60 miles) from Munich in southern Germany.
Source: Flight International
