Great news that Air Berlin have thrown their hat into the ring for Belfast.
Will surely give easyJet a bit of a run on the Stansted route.

I doubt Air Berlin will offer anything else other than a domestic route
from BHD. Most of the viable international routes have been wrapped up by Jet2 & EasyJet

This will be a winner. You can interline onwards from STN with Air Berlin thus opening up the whole network to NI.

Great too see Air Berlin starting another new route from Stansted. We have Alicante starting soon aswell. I really want to fly with them on one of their domestic routes for a day trip. Either Manchester or Belfast. The Manchester flights seem to be doing really well. Several flights are either completely sold out or with just a couple of seats left if you want to fly in the next few days.

Air Berlin seem to be doing very well on there domestic services as Glasgow is also doing well with many flights becoming full.

I think Air Berlin will do well on this route!!! Good Luck to them!!!

Air Berlin
 

Air-Berlin are to begin flying from STN to Belfast (City) from May 2nd.
There will be two daily flights Mon.-Fri. & one daily flight Sat.Sun.

ALL READY DONE!


rgds

K.I.L.

What aircraft will they be using? I had a look on the website and the prices seemed reasonable. Something like 46 quid all the way to Vienna connecting in Stansted. What are connections like at stansted? Is it possible to check baggage through to the final destination?

Cheers.

I've used them from Stansted to Glasgow. Better cabin service than EZY, but only two flights a day which is difficult in a high density market.

You get allocated seats, sweets and newspapers on boarding, drinks (soft), and a rather Germanic heavyweight sandwich/roll that all seem to have been made, pressed together and loaded at Berlin at 05.00 each day.

On returning into STN aircraft goes to international pier, pax are segregated at foot of steps, domestic pax into bus for terminal, continuing pax up into pier. The aircraft continues to Germany, there is a mini-hub operation with about 6 simultaneous departures, fed by arrivals from Manchester and Glasgow. For domestic pax it all adds about 10-15 minutes to the overall journey time.

A lot of pax seem to be connecting to/from other AB flights, they definitely organise it as a feeder with through baggage and boarding cards. Northbound all the through pax were seated in the forward cabin, domestic pax at the rear. The FA stood at the front and did the safety briefing in German, then repositioned to mid-cabin and did it again in English ! There's a lot of German spoken on board.

They need attention to how to keep on time. Lessons I am afraid EZY/FR could teach them.

For a new service with an operator "unknown" on the route loads were surprisingly good.

I'm guessing they will use a Fokker F100 to Belfast.

I've heard it will be a B737-700.

It will be a B737-700.

Suddenly BHD is looking interesting in comparison to BFS...with 737s, A32xs, 146s, Dash 8s of various vintages, soon the E195, and other assorted craft.

At BFS it seems like 737 city!

Have just booked BHD-STN-VIE for £66 return including credit card booking fee and all taxes for Oct, using AB on the BHD-STN leg and NIKI on the STN-VIE sector. Looking forward to both on a first time visit to Vienna. Roll on .......:)

Dee747 - get in touch - used to live in VIE - you'll have a great time!

Air Berlin and the "nice" lo-cos!
 

I wish Air Berlin all the best on the BHD route, they seem to offer something truly different in the lo-co sector,and I believe are a sign of the more customer friendly lo-co carriers that are now appearing. not since Go have we seen an airline which can claim that low fares dont equal crappy service.

These airlines are the future and should be supported. FR and U2 have a limited appeal going forward, people are getting sick of tatty interiors, rubbinh food(even to buy) and incessent marketing while on board. AB,Niki, Aer Lingus and the much derided BAconnect are proof that low fares can be "way better".

By the way....Corkonians love cheap flights to STN(and more importantly, byond) and there is plenty of room in the market this summer....

Best of Luck to all at AB/Niki. May you prosper and grow.

AIR BERLIN
 

anyone got any info on AB expansion at stansted the move to sat 2 makes you think something is in the pipeline:confused:

EDI and NCL seem obvious gaps in AB's UK domestic network. Any indication that these airports will be served in the near future?

How many aircraft does Air Berlin have at its bases?
At STN?
Cheers!

EDI has enough German and Eastern european links, and so I suspect thats why AB are focussing their Scottish flights on GLA which has few direct routes, and getting transit passengers via STN

AB
 

I'm hoping of booking to day trip with Air Berlin in October some time. They have some great fares from Stansted. Just trying to decide the best place to go for the day.

Based aircraft
 

AB has no based aircraft at STN.

NEW GM?
 

anyone heard about AB getting a new General manager in the UK?

saw an air berlin plane on stand at stn other day with tui winglets any one tell why?

Like this?

http://www.justplanes.com/images/8513.jpg

yes like that

http://www.airspacemag.com/ASM/Mag/I...1/AS/htww.html

Winglets explained.

No disrespect Moderator, but I think we all know what winglets are for- the discussion was regarding specifically why there were TUI winglets on an Air Berlin aircraft. A perfectly reasonable discussion IMO.

Not sure about a new GM but you're definitely getting a new UK S&M director. Used to be with VLM and SABRE so I understand.

Story behind the winglets is it was a lightening strike that damaged both winglets (in one side, out the other).

AB have no spares, Hapag did.

No big deal but a bit expensive.

just following easyjet's lead I suppose.

I can only think that it,s in the deal that Airbus give on product suport as I suspect that you could not find a lot of diference between the B737NG and the A320 in fuel burn.

No doubt the Americans will scream about goverment suport for the european industry wile forgetting about the very big defence contracts that help maintain the Boeing infastructure.

A V B
 

15 love Airbus

:ok:

eurocan The answer is Money!! In whatever way the deal has been done, they perceive that it will save them money over the alternatives. If they wanted to expand and then found that it was cheaper to change equipment, then that's what they are going to do. The change may be painful but it will make sense on paper.

Might also have something to do with availability. Recent experience shows delivery slots for A320s are much better than for 737s. And not too many used 737NGs on the market either.

I think the fact that they are buying shiney new airplanes also has something to do with the tax/accountig laws in Germany (EU?)...Maybe nothing to do with the Airbus Q, but I think if you have commitments for investments, in the future, you can start writing of taxes on those loans/leases already now...IE you can use investments, that you still have not paid for, to brighten up not so good (?) looking financial reports, or make good reports look even better, by buying/replacing your fleet like there is no tomorrow...
Not sure what happans when you stop expanding/stop buying new airplanes..:} :confused:
/CP

Well, at least Air Berlin were smart enough to order 320´s instead of 319 with 4 overwing exits and 156 seats which requires an extra 4th FA. :{

There is only one alternative - forever operate Boeing 737s which, if it is a known policy, certainly does not guarantee a good deal from your then only supplier when it comes to renewing your fleet....

Hey

Just a little bit of info regarding a earlier post saying it would be a B737-700 operating the STN-GLA flights. Its often a B737NG operating this route. it has begun to be more and more the F100's, but too start with and still is oprated alot with the B737NG.

D-ABBT

Air Berlin buys DBA for 120 M €..
 

Yesterday Air Berlin has bought it's competitor DBA ( 29 aircraft..) for 120 M €
They financed the deal by proper cash without any loans.Question now is what will happen with LTU,which have focussed on long-haul flughts ans which is onwed by Rudolf Wöhrl,the previous owner of DBA.It could mean that AB will start long haul operations in a not too far future.

dba is no direct competitor. They have totally different route systems.

So 29 aircraft for 120 million euros. So is this cheap or did Easy get ripped off buying Go?