Germany's Ryanair?
First of all, a few 'facts'.
*Air Berlin was founded in 1978 by ex Pan Am Captain, Kim Lundgren with one B707 in Tegel. He still owns 26% of the Company.
*The other owners, one of which is Joachim Hunold, include banks and larger retail institutions in Germany.
*J. Hunold joined Air Berlin in 1991 from LTU. He has a PPL.
He is the Managing Partner, not the owner and founder.
*Section 7 of the Ops manual is the same as used by Lufthansa, LTU, Germania etc.
*There are several pilots who are members of Vereinigung Cockpit (Germany's BALPA) who have not been 'mobbed'
*The longest serving pilot with Air Berlin is an American from Texas who spoke no German when he joined, neither did I when I joined in 1992.
As for comparisons with another UK airline, I would suggest it is much more like Monarch in that it began life as charter airline. Schedules were introduced in the 1990s and have expanded into the route structure they now have. They are still predominantly a charter airline.
Judge A Gen obviously has an axe to grind for some reason. Maybe he or she or lost his job with them or was denied promotion. Whatever the 'facts' are, it would be nice if he could make it obvious that he knew what he was talking about.
By the way, Air Berlin has the best company parties!