Air Berlin battles through Germany's LCC wars

摘要

Air Berlin has grown steadily to become not just the second-largest airline in Germany in terms of passengers carried, but also the third-largest LCC in the whole of Europe. But can the Tegel-based airline retain its independence against the onslaught of easyJet and Ryanair into the lucrative German market? Air Berlin was founded by Kim Lundgren in 1978 as a charter airline based in the US, since only aircraft owned by the Second World War's Allied nations were allowed to land in Berlin. Once this rule ended, German investors bought into the company in 1992, and today Air Berlin is owned by Reidun and Kim Lundgren (26%), Severin and Rudolf Schulte (25%), Hans-Joachim Knieps (25%), Werner Huehn (15%) and Joachim Hunold (9%), who is also the airline's managing partner.