air Berlin first time round yes was an american owned carrier operating holiday flights through the corridor like Modern air aeroamerica plus UK carriers Laker Dan air and channel airways did too
as German airlines were not allowed to fly into and out of Berlin until the wall came down
AirBerlin – the start of a success story on 28th April 1979, a Boeing 707 took off from Berlin-Tegel for Palma de Mallorca. This inaugural flight was the start of airberlin’s success story. During the oil crisis of the 1970s, the US pilot, Kim Lundgren, lost his job at Pan American in Europe. Instead of going back to the USA, he realised his dream and set up a charter airline. In 1978, the airline was incorporated in the US state of Oregon under the name “Air Berlin Inc.”.
This was because at that time, before the reunification of Germany, air traffic to and from Berlin was restricted to airlines from the Allied countries. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 brought a new challenge. Kim Lundgren lost his special privileges to Berlin and had to look for German majority shareholders.
1978-1990: American charter airline in West Berlin
Air Berlin's aircraft livery has changed several times. The original Air Berlin USA livery was used on the airline's Boeing 707s and Boeing 737-200s...
The Original Air Berlin USA
Originally registered as Air Berlin USA,the company was founded in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lelco, an American agricultural enterprise headquartered in Oregon, to operate charter flights on behalf of German tour operators from Berlin Tegel Airport, mostly to Mediterranean holiday resorts.
The co-founders of Air Berlin USA were:
Kim Lundgren, a former Berlin-based flight engineer of Pan American World Airways;
John MacDonald, a former station manager of United States supplemental and charter airline Saturn Airways at Berlin Tempelhof Airport in the 1960s and subsequent general manager Europe and vice president at the Berlin Tegel Airport base of the former United States supplemental carrier and charter airline Modern Air from 1968 until 1974;
Mort Beyer, Modern Air's executive vice president from 1967 until 1971 as well as the airline's president and vice president of the National Air Carrier Association in 1971 and founder of United States aviation consultancy Avmark
Lelco was the agriculture business of Kim Lundgren's family in the United States.
As a United States airline, Air Berlin was able to access the West Berlin airline market. During the Cold War, Berlin's special political status meant that the air corridors into and out of Tegel Airport could only be used by airlines registered in France, the United Kingdom or the United States. The airline's headquarters were initially at Tegel Airport. Leonard Lundgren was the first chairman.
After the company was issued an airline licence and acquired two Boeing 707 jet airliners previously owned by Trans World Airlines, Air Berlin USA commenced revenue services on 28 April 1979 with a flight from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca. Plans were made to start long-haul flights on West Berlin-Brussels-Florida routes,in cooperation with Air Florida (an agreement to that effect had been signed in February 1979).
In 1980, the Air Berlin USA fleet grew to include the Boeing 737-200, when two aircraft of that type were leased from Air Florida. In 1981, Air Berlin USA was continuing to operate scheduled transatlantic Boeing 707 service on a weekly routing of Berlin Tegel Airport - Brussels - Orlando;however, by 1982, the 707s had been phased out, and during most of the 1980s, Air Berlin USA operated only a single 737-200 or (from 1986) a 737-300. In 1990 and 1991, two modern Boeing 737-400s were also placed into service
707-331 plus -123B -321B -331b versions operated
in 1991 the air Berlin as you know today was formed as the USA owned airline no longer had privileges to fly from Berlin -
German reunification led to significant changes to the Berlin aviation market, since German airlines gained access to the city. In 1991, Air Berlin (which had 90 employees at the time) was bought by Joachim Hunold (de), a former sales and marketing director with LTU International, and restructured as Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, a German-registered company.Following an order for ten Boeing 737-800, Air Berlin grew and by 1999, the fleet comprised twelve aircraft. In 2001, Air Berlin became on of the first airlines in the world to have their Boeing 737-800s fitted with blended winglets
n March 2007 after enormous growth, Air Berlin took over famous German leisure airline LTU, gaining access to the long-haul market and becoming the fourth largest airline group in Europe in terms of passenger traffic. This deal led to the introduction of Airbus A330 aircraft into Air Berlin's fleet. The merger of the LTU operations, aircraft and crew was completed on 1 May 2009, when the iconic LTU brand was discontinued.
Last edited by rog747; 16th Aug 2017 at 15:28.