There was a good business story over Air Berlin (now dissolved) today over at N-TV, and I'd recommend it.
For those who aren't into the story....Air Berlin started up in 1979, out of Berlin, and it was this low-budget airline which served Berlin (in the Cold War years). This was a 'tiny' operation (two planes in the early period), and went through 12 years of decent profits.
As 1990 came around, with unification, they changed a bit.....bringing in more investors, and grew bigger. By 1999, they now had a dozen planes.
Around 2004, they combined with Air Niki, and later in 2005, with Germania, they combined.
In 2007, they took over LTU (the vacation airline folks).
By 2010, they were lining up to be part of the One World group.
In 2011, they'd done a deal with Etihad Airways.
What you can generally say....is that they just kept this merger game continuing, but never really concentrating on business and passengers. The orders for 787's in 2014? That got cancelled.
From 2016, they were attempting various tricks to recover, and simply were too far down and unable to find anyone with cash to help their ailments.
So now, the court system is clearing the debt situation.
What N-TV discusses is the fact that the workers who lost their jobs.....are now finding that there is nothing much left for them. You are looking at 8,600 employees let go, and zeroed out for compensation.
It is one of the sadder stories of unification.....in that they were able to run a small airline, with limited focus and management required.
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