airberlin and the Aviation Club

Last week’s Aviation Club lunch in London (15 March 2012) was intriguing in that the published speaker, airberlin CEO Hartmut Mehdorn, pulled out at the last minute replaced by Chief Commercial Officer Paul Gregorowitsch who focused his address on the airline’s new survival strategy, known as ‘Shape & Size.’  The next day airberlin announced a net loss of €271.8m for 2011, a worsening by €174.6m from the previous 12 months.  Revenue increased by 13.7% to €4.23bn and passenger numbers by 1.2% to 35.3m.

 “2011 was a very difficult year for the industry and 2012 is unlikely to be much better,” he stated.  For airberlin to survive, said Gregorowitsch, the airline needed to go for “effective global reach.”  This was being achieved by business and investment partnership with Etihad Airways and entry in the oneworld alliance as from 20 March.  At the same time, the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, due to open in June, would become “a pre-eminent central European hub” providing competitive strength for airberlin and its partners.

Gregorowitsch went on to slam APD (British and German); highlighted the UK’s political uncertainty over airport development; and was in favour of a possible investment partnership between British and German air traffic management companies. www.airberlin.com

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