After reducing its fleet from 170 to 149 aircraft and acquiring a stake in Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, Airberlin is now looking to reposition itself in the high-contribution market. In particular, by investing in a new business product and an increase in long-haul services from Düsseldorf airport, which has become the airline's intercontinental hub alongside Berlin. Düsseldorf has the advantage over Berlin of being more at the heart of Western Europe, while also being the financial hub of Germany's largest conurbation, serving some 17 million inhabitants between the Rhine and the Ruhr.
The airport is one of the largest in the country, handling a number of 22 million passengers a year. This winter, Airberlin is offering 66 daily return frequencies to 49 destinations - including five long-haul routes - with a theoretical capacity of 322,338 seats per month. Airberlin controls a third of the capacity offered from the Rhineland hub.
Airberlin's drive to win back high-contribution passengers will therefore involve expanding capacity in Düsseldorf which will be adding four new destinations to its intercontinental network for the summer season. For the first time, Airberlin will serve Boston, Dallas, San Francisco and Havana from Düsseldorf. The airline will also resume its service to Los Angeles. Airberlin CEO Stefan Pichler says that capacity will remain at least at 2015 levels, after being down by more than 6.5% across the network this year.
The company has also set itself the target of double its business passenger revenues. Airberlin is therefore redesigning its business class on its A330 aircraft, incorporating a fully reclining seat-bed. The carrier will finally strengthen its cooperation with Etihadits main investor, with a 29.2% stake in the German airline, as well as American Airlines and Alitalia. The aim is to enable Airberlin to return to profit by 2017.
Capacity of airberlin and its partners (Etihad, Alitalia and Niki) from Düsseldorf (November 2015):
Düsseldorf > Munich 45644
Düsseldorf > Berlin 39177
Düsseldorf > Vienna 27627
Düsseldorf > Abu Dhabi 16342
Düsseldorf > Zurich 18818
Düsseldorf > Hamburg 12947
Düsseldorf > Copenhagen 12179
Düsseldorf > Palma de Mallorca 11034
Düsseldorf > Miami 9210
Düsseldorf > New York 921
Source: flightmaps.analytics
