Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, branded as airberlin or airberlin.com, was Germany's second largest airline, after Lufthansa, and Europe's seventh largest airline in terms of passengers carried. It maintained hubs at Berlin Tegel Airport and Düsseldorf Airport and operated a route network that included a total of 12 German cities, some European metropolitan and intercontinental services to destinations in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Air Berlin was a member of the Oneworld alliance, and owned the subsidiary Belair in Switzerland while the sale of its 49% stake Austrian subsidiary NIKI to Etihad Airways was announced in December 2016. It was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Etihad Airways was the largest shareholder, having increased its shareholding to 29.21% in 2011. Air Berlin was headquartered in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, a borough of Berlin.
Originally registered as Air Berlin USA, the company was founded in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lelco, an American agricultural enterprise headquartered in Oregon, to operate charter flights on behalf of German tour operators from Berlin Tegel Airport, mostly to Mediterranean holiday resorts. As a United States airline, Air Berlin was able to access the West Berlin airline market. During the Cold War, Berlin's special political status meant that the air corridors into and out of Tegel Airport could only be used by airlines registered in France, the United Kingdom or the United States. The airline's headquarters were initially at Tegel Airport.
Air Berlin filed for bankruptcy protection on 15 August 2017 and ceased operations on 27 October 2017. The last flight was from Munich to Berlin on 29 September 2017.
Livery
Bombardier (de Havilland Canada) Dash-8, DHC-8-402, registration D-ABQR, built 2016, serial number 4538 Cointrin (GVA), Geneva, Switzerland, 3 May 2017
