Late last month, Air Berlin, the second largest
airline in Germany and the fifth largest in Europe, announced that it is
to join oneworldฎ, the world’s premier airline alliance for
international quality carriers. Full membership is envisaged for the
beginning of 2012.
In preparation for joining the alliance, Air Berlin
has set up codeshare agreements with American Airlines and Finnair. This
will provide Air Berlin passengers with access to the important American
market and, via the Helsinki hub, to the rapidly growing Asian markets.
The codeshare flights will be available in time for the winter schedule
2010/11.
Joachim Hunold, CEO Air Berlin, commented on the
agreement that is linked to Air Berlin’s plans to join oneworld, the
global airline alliance: “We are very pleased that the bilateral
agreement will be in place for the start of the winter schedule 2010/11.
With our friends at American Airlines we will link our hubs on both
sides of the Atlantic to achieve a major increase in our services by
operating codeshare flights. Initially we will offer 38 routes,
including nine transatlantic routes, as part of this codeshare.”
Tom Horton, President of American Airlines added, “We
are pleased to announce our partnership with Air Berlin, the second
largest German airline, which has also become one of the most respected
airlines in Europe over the past two decades. This relationship will add
significant value for our customers by substantially growing our global
network. The agreement provides our customers with extensive access to
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, as well as many other business and
leisure destinations. Furthermore, Air Berlin’s U.S. services truly
complement our three strategic core markets - New York, Miami, and Los
Angeles.”
As regards the codeshare agreement with Finnair,
Joachim Hunold remarked, “Finnair and Air Berlin were able to survive
the selection process experienced by European airlines because they took
action rather than watching from the sidelines. We are delighted that
Finnair and Air Berlin have reached an agreement on offering codeshare
flights from the start of this year’s winter schedule. Finnair is a
superb bilateral partner for Air Berlin and provides our passengers with
excellent access to the Asian markets via the Finnair hub in Helsinki.”
Mika Vehvilไinen, President of Finnair commented, “As
one of the first airlines to have joined oneworld, Finnair is delighted
to welcome Air Berlin as a new member of the alliance. The bilateral
agreement will provide Air Berlin passengers with first-class access to
destinations in Asia via our Helsinki hub. In return, our clients from
Finland will have extensive access to destinations in southern and
western Europe.”
From its New York hub at John F. Kennedy Airport
(JFK), American Airlines offers flights to 56 destinations. The Miami
hub of American Airlines is at the heart of an exceptional density of
flight connections to 30 destinations in Mexico, Central and South
America. In addition, American Airlines offers a network to 23 islands
in the Caribbean and six destinations in the Bahamas, which exceeds the
services provided by any other airline. From its Los Angeles hub there
are 31 connections including four destinations in Hawaii.
In the last few years Finnair has become a major
airline operating passenger flights between Europe and Asia. From its
modern Helsinki hub it offers long-haul flights that connect Europe with
key destinations in Asia. Finnair operates flights to ten cities in Asia
(Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Bangkok as well as New
Delhi, Nagoya, Seoul and Singapore). In 2008 the airline carried 1.3
million passengers between Europe and Asia. From Helsinki there are
connections to the German cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt,
Stuttgart (from August 2010) and Munich.
Air Berlin is the leading airline in Berlin, Dsseldorf,
Hamburg, Stuttgart and Palma de Mallorca. With its international
destinations Air Berlin serves the oneworld hubs in Helsinki, Los
Angeles, Madrid, Miami, Moscow Domodedovo, New York (JFK) and Bangkok.
Air Berlin (including NIKI) currently operates a fleet of 165 aircraft
with an average age of five years. In 2009, as one of Europe’s most
important European airlines, Air Berlin carried around 28 million
passengers to 160 destinations in 40 countries.
