Airberlin grounded as pilots call in sick
Move potentially hampers efforts to find investors to rescue troubled carrier
Insolvent airberlin cancelled about 100 flights yesterday after pilots called in sick in unusually high numbers, potentially hampering an attempt to find investors to rescue Germany’s second-largest airline.
Airberlin filed for bankruptcy protection last month after its biggest shareholder, Etihad Airways, withdrew funding following years of losses.
Potential investors have until September 15 to submit binding offers for the German airline.
“We must return to stable operations. That is crucial in order to bring talks with investors to a successful conclusion,” chief operations officer Oliver Iffert said in an internal memo. “Today is a day that threatens the existence of airberlin.”
About 100 flights had been cancelled by late yesterday morning after 200 airberlin pilots called in sick.
Some short-haul flights at Lufthansa’s budget airline Eurowings were also hit because it leases 33 planes with crews from airberlin.
An industry source said airberlin could lose €4-€5 million (Dh17.6-Dh22 million) a day because of the cancellations.
Pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it was surprised by the absences and that it had not called on its members at airberlin to call in sick.
In a similar incident last year, German leisure airline TUIfly was forced to cancel flights after cockpit and cabin crew called in sick. The union Verdi, which represents cabin staff, said then its members were concerned that merger talks, which have since failed, could lead to job and pay cuts.
While a German government loan is helping keep airberlin alive, the carrier has also been forced to scrap some long-haul destinations from September 25.
Iffert said in the memo seen by Reuters that this was because a leasing company will no longer provide airberlin with 10 long-haul planes.
Germany’s biggest airline, Lufthansa, is seen in pole position to acquire large parts of its rival and a decision on the bids come could as early as September 21, three days before a national election.
One source has told Reuters that Lufthansa is interested in as many as 90 of airberlin’s planes. That number includes the 33 being used by Eurowings, five already leased to Lufthansa’s Austrian Airlines as well as planes used by airberlin subsidiary Niki, the source said.