Airline News

www.Parctel.com: In April 2007, the airline company Air Berlin transported 126,452 more passengers on domestic and international flights than in the same month of the previous year. The number of passengers welcomed on board in April 2007 amounted to 1,684,733 (4/2006: 1,558,281), i.e. an increase of 8.1 per cent. For the first four months of 2007, the accumulated number of passengers flying Air Berlin rose by 10.6 per cent, i.e. from 5,288,759 to 5,850,420.

For April 2007, the fleet capacity utilization rate decreased by 2.9 percentage points to 74.9 per cent (4/2006: 77.8 per cent). The company believes that the unusual weather conditions were responsible for this development: While airlines usually witness a lot of short-term bookings for Southbound flights in April, sunny weather in Germany and persistent rainfall in the Mediterranean region convinced many holiday makers to stay in Germany. Nevertheless, for the first four months of the year, the accumulated capacity utilization rate still showed an increase of 0.8 percentage points to 70.9 per cent.

In April 2007, the following German airports recorded exceptional growth: Berlin-Tegel (+18 per cent) and Munich (+11 per cent). Outside of Ger-many, Helsinki airport once again took the lead with an increase of 82 per cent, followed by Moscow (+61 per cent) and Zurich (+23 per cent).

www.Parctel.com: Air Berlin has introduced fully flexible and refundable fares from £95 one way (including all taxes and charges) from London Stansted to Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast City on its UK domestic network. This is the lowest published fully flexible and refundable fare in the UK market.

Titus Johnson, Air Berlin UK and Ireland Country Manager, said: "Air Berlin is offering the best value in terms of lower fares and premium service in the UK. These lower fares will be attractive to UK companies who value reliability, higher service levels and flexibility."

Air Berlin passengers benefit from pre allocated seating, complimentary in-flight sandwiches, drinks, newspapers, 20KG baggage allowance and one of the most attractive frequent flyer programmes.

Passengers originating from Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast City can conveniently connect at London Stansted to Düsseldorf, Paderborn, Munster, Hanover, Berlin, Leipzig and Nuremberg.

The fares are available for booking via Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre and Worldspan (Fare Basis DFLEX) or online at www.airberlin.com.

In 2006 Air Berlin made a profit of €50.1 million and is expecting to carry more than 25 million passengers over the next 12 months.

www.Parctel.com: Joachim Hunold, CEO of Air Berlin, and the designer Jette Joop presented the new Air Berlin uniform in Majorca on Wednesday. The clothing range is both modern and functional and will be worn by airline staff from June 2007.

Female flight attendants can choose between a dark blue, knee-length dress and trousers with a blouse or roll-neck sweater, also in dark blue. Contrast colour accents are introduced by a scarf, headdress, belt and gloves in Air Berlin red. Male colleagues will be matching trousers with a casual short-sleeved or long-sleeved dark blue sweater. The uniform worn by the cockpit crew consists of a classic dark suit and a white shirt. A blue V-neck sweater can also be worn over the shirt. Female pilots will be teaming this up with a red tie, while male pilots will be sporting a blue tie.

3,300 Air Berlin and dba employees in total will be wearing the new attire. Not only the cockpit crew and cabin staff, but also the 670 members of the ground staff team will be receiving the restyled uniforms.

www.Parctel.com: In March 2007, the airline company Air Berlin transported 13.6 per cent more passengers than in the same month of the previous year. In total, the number of passengers welcomed on board on international and domestic flights amounted to 1,656,515 (03/2006: 1,458,751). Compared to the same month of the previous year, fleet capacity utilization improved from 71.7 per cent to approximately 74 per cent, corresponding to an increase of 2.3 percentage points.

The accumulated number of passengers flying Air Berlin rose by 11.7 per cent. From January to March 2007, 4,165,687 passengers were counted (January to March 2006: 3,730,478). The capacity utilization rate in the first three months of 2007 rose from 67.4 to 69.5 per cent, i.e. an improvement of 2.1 percentage points.

In March 2007, the following German airports recorded exceptional growth: Dresden (+ 77 per cent), Frankfurt and Bremen (+ 50 per cent each), Leipzig (+ 38 per cent), Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden (+ 29 per cent) and Berlin-Tegel (+ 28 per cent). Outside of Germany, Helsinki airport once again took the lead with an increase of 79 per cent, followed by Moscow (+ 49 per cent), Madrid (+ 37 per cent), Ibiza (+ 36 per cent), Zurich (+ 35 per cent) and Malaga (+ 22 per cent).

www.Parctel.com: From 1st April 2007 onwards the name dba will no longer have its own corporate identity. The entire range of activities, from bookings to flights, will be carried out under the Air Berlin brand. This applies to domestic German routes and to European flights. "We have adopted the business quality of dba and combined this with the award-winning Air Berlin service. The result is our common business class for everyone," explained Joachim Hunold, Air Berlin’s Chief Executive Officer, in Berlin on Monday.

Discrepancies in the regulations regarding fares, baggage allowance, reductions and service have now been eliminated. The flexi fares that used to apply at dba will soon be available for booking via all the Air Berlin sales channels. The relevant technical changes will start to be implemented by the end of March. All flights operating from 1st May 2007 can then be booked using the Air Berlin system, and with the carrier code of "AB".

dba’s domestic German destinations fit in perfectly with Air Berlin’s European network. Air Berlin passengers have a choice of more than 600 flights a day. All the aircraft sport Air Berlin’s livery. The ticket desks and check-ins at the airports are a uniform Air Berlin red as well.

The result of this standardisation of brand identity means that Air Berlin flights can now be booked within Germany and throughout Europe from 29 euros, including taxes and charges. With the "Top Bonus" frequent flyer programme, passengers can earn miles towards a free flight on all routes. There is an immediate 33 per cent reduction for children under 12, and this also applies on German domestic flights. The chocolate heart will be retained on flights within Germany, although it will now be appearing in Air Berlin red.

www.Parctel.com: February 2007 has been another good month for Air Berlin and its wholly owned subsidiary, dba: there was a double digit growth of 12.3 per cent in the number of passengers carried, from 1,160,308 to 1,302,643. In the months of January and February 2007 2,509,172 passengers were welcomed on board. This corresponds to an increase of 10.5 per cent on the 2,271,727 passengers carried in the same period of the previous year.

The combined fleet capacity utilisation rate rose by 1.9 percentage points from 66.7 per cent in February 2006 to 68.6 per cent in February 2007. The cumulative increase in capacity utilisation over the first two months of the year was 2 percentage points to 66.8 per cent (01+02/2006: 64.8 per cent).

In February 2007 the following airports reported exceptional growth: Dresden (+ 95 per cent), Bremen (+ 51 per cent), Frankfurt (+ 37 per cent), Leipzig (+ 25 per cent), Berlin-Tegel (+ 24 per cent) and Hamburg (+ 17 per cent). The airports outside Germany experiencing strong growth are headed by Helsinki (+ 66 per cent), Moscow (+ 52 per cent), Madrid (+ 43 per cent) and Zurich (+ 31 per cent).

www.Parctel.com: Air Berlin is the most family-oriented airline. The travel magazine "Urlaub Perfekt" came to this conclusion in its latest edition. Eight holiday airlines and low-cost carriers were compared in the categories prices, service, comfort, catering and entertainment.

Air Berlin was the only airline to be given the rating "very good", as it offers altogether the best and most reasonably priced services for children. The Irish airline Ryanair was given the rating "unsatisfactory".

www.Parctel.com: In 2006, Air Berlin PLC, Germany’s second-largest airline company, recorded a net profit of approximately EUR 50 million. As Air Berlin’s Chief Financial Officer, Ulf Hüttmeyer, stated in Berlin on Monday 26 February 2007, sales revenue in 2006 amounted to EUR 1.57 billion, corresponding to a 28.6 per cent increase in comparison with the previous year (2005: EUR 1.22 billion). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and lease expenses (EBITDAR) increased by 67.4 per cent, namely from EUR 153.2 million (in 2005) to EUR 256.5 million. In 2006, operating income (EBIT before interest and taxes) amounted to EUR 64.1 million (2005: EUR -5.5 million); after deducting interest and taxes, net earnings of EUR 50.057 million were recorded. In 2005, Air Berlin had still reported a loss amounting to EUR 115.9 million.

"By achieving the best operating result in the history of our company, we reached all the targets we had set ourselves for 2006. Despite the costs of going public and the integration of dba, which Air Berlin acquired in August 2006, our net profit even exceeded the expectations of most analysts", stated Joachim Hunold, Air Berlin’s Chief Executive Officer. On March 27, the company will disclose details of its results for the year at the balance sheet press conference in Berlin.