Interestingly enough, Finnair was the one to make the announcement.
Airberlin joins oneworld alliance today
Finnair Plc
Press release
Airberlin joins oneworld alliance today
Europe’s sixth biggest airline airberlin, along with its subsidiary
airberlinNIKI, are welcomed into the oneworld global airline alliance today,
March 20. Finnair and airberlin have cooperated on a code-share basis since
2010. The cooperation has opened up new destinations in German-speaking Europe
and the Mediterranean for Finnair customers, and airberlin’s membership of the
alliance will expand the network even further.
Eternal darkness we all should dread. It's hard to party when you're dead.
jrn216 From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2012, 34 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (1 year 2 months 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 6593 times:
Having Air Berlin join the oneworld alliance is an interesting and welcome move.
I have travelled with Air Berlin a number of times and have always been impressed by its level of service. It will be good to earn mileage awards on my British Airways account when flying Air Berlin in the future.
Air Berlin has been to a large extent a leisure-based airline with a substantial network to the Mediterranean. Adding new destinations to an alliance’s coverage is beneficial but, of course, is not necessarily of benefit when trying to attract premium passengers. The airline’s continued transformation, however, will be interesting to watch and today’s entry to oneworld marks a big step towards this. Hubs at Berlin Brandenburg and Düsseldorf will certainly be useful for oneworld and the additional feed and coverage will assist Air Berlin in its attempts to restructure, offering new partnerships and growth opportunities.
I do wonder, however, what impact Air Berlin’s relationship with Etihad will have upon the airline’s oneworld membership in the long-term.
A388 From Netherlands Antilles, joined May 2001, 9079 posts, RR: 13 Reply 3, posted (1 year 2 months 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 6496 times:
Good news, can anyone let me know when this One World A330-200 will fly to Curacao? We have a once weekly service every tuesday. Anyone with insight into their aircraft scheduling, would be very much appreciated to know this.
Once again, congratulations to Air Berlin and One World!!!
nycdave From United States of America, joined Aug 2010, 518 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 6033 times:
Is AB going to be improving and expanding their J offering, or adding F? Isn't a key aim for alliances to harmonize customer experience across the brands?
I agree -- AB was hands-down the most pleasant LCC I flew in Europe... arguably ready for primetime if they can add a business/first product that's up to their coach standard.
CaptainCrackers From New Zealand, joined May 2010, 123 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 5938 times:
Quoting nycdave (Reply 6): Is AB going to be improving and expanding their J offering
Although AB already launched a new hard J product on their A332s in January, German media reported last week that AB now plans to introduce EY's full-flat J seats and a new entertainment product starting fall 2012, ostensibly due to pressure from EY.
Edited to add: AB hasn't actually announced this, and there is speculation the new product will be installed only on aircraft doing BER-AUD.
miaintl From United States of America, joined Jun 2010, 825 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 5677 times:
AB has to radically change their service and stop serving leisure destinations if they want to be of any benefit to oneworld alliance. I suggest making DUS and BER its sole hubs and try driving LH out of those markets so they can have it all to themselves. LH does not need hubs at DUS and BER it should let AB be the sole carrier operating out of those airports.
A388 From Netherlands Antilles, joined May 2001, 9079 posts, RR: 13 Reply 10, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 5575 times:
Quoting miaintl (Reply 9): AB has to radically change their service and stop serving leisure destinations if they want to be of any benefit to oneworld alliance.
Why should they? If an alliance can also offer its customers leisure destinations, it only broadens the customers' options. Based on this thread AB needs to adapt their inflight service but why stop serving leisure destinations? Even legacy carriers are now getting into leisure markets (BA, AF, KL), so why shouldn't AB who has been active in these type of markets for years?
jonathanxxxx From United States of America, joined Feb 2011, 638 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 5542 times:
Quoting miaintl (Reply 9): AB has to radically change their service
Yep, especially if they want to attract more premium passengers to BER.
He said for AB to stop serving leisure destinations:
If it works why fix it? You already have BA to serve all the business destinations, IB to serve Latin America and AB to serve the leisure destinations. Seems pretty well rounded.
[quote=miaintl,reply=9]I suggest making DUS and BER its sole hubs and try driving LH out of those markets so they can have it all to themselves. LH does not need hubs at DUS and BER it should let AB be the sole carrier operating out of those airports.
This could be a good strategy, defending it before LH comes in and takes it all.
AirCanada787 From Canada, joined Nov 2010, 260 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 5337 times:
Quoting miaintl (Reply 9): LH does not need hubs at DUS and BER it should let AB be the sole carrier operating out of those airports.
Why should LH just forget about DUS and BER and let AB be the only carrier at those airports? That's quite the idea and it would never happen, to expect one airline to just handover passengers to another airline is a bit of a preposterous idea when they could get some of the passengers for themselves. Airlines aren't about playing nice they are about making money.
The mind, like a parachute, functions only when open.
LH already has FRA and MUC let them have AB get DUS and BER. LH will only cannibalize its own traffic if it keeps on adding hubs and focus cities. They have two beautiful hubs at FRA and MUC which are more than efficient, LH just wants to have a monopoly in the German air market and they don't want any competition, but I suggest that AB brings the competition to them and the way to do this is for AB to start serving premium business destinations and compete with LH on these routes.
jonathanxxxx From United States of America, joined Feb 2011, 638 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 5200 times:
Quoting miaintl (Reply 13):
LH already has FRA and MUC let them have AB get DUS and BER. LH will only cannibalize its own traffic if it keeps on adding hubs and focus cities. They have two beautiful hubs at FRA and MUC which are more than efficient, LH just wants to have a monopoly in the German air market and they don't want any competition, but I suggest that AB brings the competition to them and the way to do this is for AB to start serving premium business destinations and compete with LH on these routes
They could do that, they will probably go under, but they can. Do you really think all the premium business demand in FRA and MUC will just jump ship over to AB? They will if the price is right but how low is that price? (Probably not high enough to be able to make money). AB is learning to make BER and DUS, IMO they should guard these as much as they can so that LH doesn't invade them instead of the other way around.
QF340500 From Singapore, joined Oct 2011, 146 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 4416 times:
Congrats to AB )) Well done and i wish them the best of luck!
I always loved AirBerlin and their concept and i was thrilled to hear that they gonna join oneworld when it was first announced. oneworld has become my favourite alliance in the last years since i am not living in Germany anymore and i am fed up with SQ, so now its CX and QF for me...
Now CX and / or QF, fly to BER and make use of the extensive network of AB there! (i hope hope hope).
That's what i am suggesting, let AB fly to short and long-haul premium destinations out of BER and DUS and offer an alternative to the usual FRA and MUC hubs. Once AB ceases to be a low-cost vacation carrier and transforms itself into a world-class legacy carrier on the par with KL, AF, LH and BA then it can transform DUS and BER into major connecting hubs that can compete with the likes of CDG, FRA and AMS. All the vacation destinations that AB is used to flying to can be handed over to Germanwings and Ryanair. LH can close its mini-hubs at BER and DUS and hand over all its routes to AB. AB can inherit all the premium routes from LH and AB can finally offer Germans an alternative to the usual LH monopoly.
crAAzy From United States of America, joined Jan 2008, 572 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 4273 times:
Quoting CaptainCrackers (Reply 8): Although AB already launched a new hard J product on their A332s in January, German media reported last week that AB now plans to introduce EY's full-flat J seats and a new entertainment product starting fall 2012, ostensibly due to pressure from EY.
Edited to add: AB hasn't actually announced this, and there is speculation the new product will be installed only on aircraft doing BER-AUD.
I've also heard that AB won't be installing the new product until it starts receiving it's 787s in 2014. I like the timing of you're information better but I'll be disappointed if they only choose to install it on aircraft flying BER-AUD.
IrishAyes From United States of America, joined Jan 2008, 1731 posts, RR: 5 Reply 20, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 3812 times:
Quoting QFVHOQA (Reply 19): Further to that, AY don't have F and are part of oneworld. As log as there is a decent J it should be sufficient.
Agreed. Look at DL - it doesn't have F on longhaul flights and neither did PMCO.
blink182 From Azerbaijan, joined Oct 1999, 5430 posts, RR: 19 Reply 21, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 3809 times:
Quoting ckfred (Reply 15): When can we expect AB and/or AA to start connecting DUS and/or BER with AA's keystone cities in the U.S.?
AB already flies to JFK, MIA, and LAX. They've operated out of JFK's T-8 since long before oneworld ever came into the picture.
Quoting miaintl (Reply 17): All the vacation destinations that AB is used to flying to can be handed over to Germanwings and Ryanair. LH can close its mini-hubs at BER and DUS and hand over all its routes to AB. AB can inherit all the premium routes from LH and AB can finally offer Germans an alternative to the usual LH monopoly.
Why just give up on leisure if that works? Does AB need to bulk up on some LH-heavy trunk routes like FRA-MUC, FRA-SXF, MUC-DUS, and others? Sure, but AB has carved out a niche for itself connecting Germany with Spain and other southern european destinations while offering a product light years ahead of AA on equivalent stage lengths. As much as AB would like LH to just pack up and leave BER and DUS, that's probably not going to happen. LH isn't a charity, and they'll fight for DUS and BER. If AB wants to be strong in those markets, they'll do it by offering a strong product and route network that can support those markets whether the focus is business or leisure, which so far seems to work. AB will only be an asset to oneworld if the airline makes money, and there's a difference between upgrading its premium product with some filler routes and overhauling its entire network on a whim.
Give me a break, I created this username when I was a kid...
But you cant have a low cost leisure carrier join a major alliance. If that is the case then why don't Ryanair and Easyjet join star and sky. One world is severely lacking in central and eastern Europe and AB is ideally positioned to capture that market, but they much rather fly to Mediterranean junk routes with trash yield and no premium demand. I say let the other low costs handle that market, and let AB transform itself into a major European carrier that can effectively compete against the likes of AF and LH and that means it has to fly on a lot of the same routes as AF and LH.
nycdave From United States of America, joined Aug 2010, 518 posts, RR: 1 Reply 23, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 3547 times:
Oy vey, I said *improving/expanding* their J offering OR adding F. I know F isn't considered a necessity by many, when the J product is top-of-the-line.
That said, AA, BA, CX, and QF all have a true F product on key long-haul routes... and the fact that many *A carriers have the same was one of the reasons given for the new UA keeping/expanding F on certain routes, rather than going the PMCO way and just doing J.
MAH4546 From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31119 posts, RR: 73 Reply 24, posted (1 year 2 months 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 3507 times:
Quoting CaptainCrackers (Reply 8): Edited to add: AB hasn't actually announced this, and there is speculation the new product will be installed only on aircraft doing BER-AUD.
It has been announced and confirmed - it was announced klast week. AB's 787 fleet will be configured identical to Etihad's, same product and all, and it certainly won't be limited to BERAUH.
Quoting miaintl (Reply 22): central and eastern Europe and AB is ideally positioned to capture that market, but they much rather fly to Mediterranean junk routes with trash yield and no premium demand
Yields to central and eastern Europe are just as trashy and the premium demand is similarity non-existent.
a.
25 r2rho: Change their service? I must have flown on a different AB then... as far as Y class intra-EU is concerned at least, AB matches or beats the legacy car
26 CaptainCrackers: The information I linked to specifically refers to AB’s A332s and gives autumn 2012 as the timeframe. I can't find any official announcement about
27 lhr380: Says who? Some aircraft by the way some of the current Oneworld airlines fly don't have F (BA 767 and some 777) Ezy and FR do it want to join a allia
28 BommerJan: Whenever I compare prices Air Berlin is more expensive than the competition, more often than not even more expensive than Lufthansa. If at all, it is
29 GT4EZY: Don't be too sure about that..... although I don't see it joining an alliance in the traditional sense. Much of what the board wrangled about with St
30 btblue: I wonder how long it will be before they join IAG
31 r2rho: I think there is a severe general misunderstanding of what AB is today, which is strongly hurting AB's business. Yes, AB was born out of the aggressi
32 PezySPU: In theory, there is nothing stopping FR and U2 from joining an alliance, except for two things: 1) Would an alliance approve their membership? Both c
33 nycdave: B6 has much the same situation here in the States (AB is not unique in this). On many routes, it is as expensive or even more expensive than legacy c
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 8979 posts, 
From Germany, joined Jul 2011, 104 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2012, 34 posts, 
From Netherlands Antilles, joined May 2001, 9079 posts, 
From New Zealand, joined May 2010, 123 posts, 
From Canada, joined Nov 2010, 260 posts, 
From Singapore, joined Oct 2011, 146 posts, 
)) Well done and i wish them the best of luck! 
From Australia, joined Mar 2012, 130 posts, 
From Azerbaijan, joined Oct 1999, 5430 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Jan 2001, 31119 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
