Airberlin slips under the wings of Etihad Airways

Etihad Airways will turn into the single largest airberlin shareholder and hereby create the foundation for connections between Berlin and Abu Dhabi:

The circle of airberlin shareholders will become subject to a major change. Etihad Airways, the national United Arab Emirates airline with headquarters in Abu Dhabi, will, as one measure in their far-reaching strategic partnership, increase their hold in shares in the second-largest German airline to 29 per cent. This includes financing provisions with a run-time of five years amounting to up to 255 million USD provided by the Arab airlines to support the fleet and the future airberlin network growth. The alliance was announced by the Etihad Airways CEO, James Hogan, and the airberlin CEO, Hartmut Mehdorn, on 19 December.

In preparation for this change, airberlin will relocate their activities in the Middle East from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. As of 15 January the German airline will operate four weekly flights with an Airbus A330-200 between Berlin and Abu Dhabi. Via four German hubs, the two airlines will operate 29 weekly flights from and to Abu Dhabi. Starting in mid April 2012 this service will be increased to 42 weekly flights.

Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com