Air Berlin

1978–1990: American charter airline in West 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.

The co-founders of Air Berlin USA were:

Kim Lundgren, a former Berlin-based flight engineer of Pan American World Airways;

John MacDonald, a former station manager of United States supplemental air carrier Saturn Airways at Berlin Tempelhof Airport in the 1960s and subsequent general manager Europe and vice president at the Berlin Tegel Airport base of the former United States supplemental carrier and charter airline Modern Air from 1968 until 1974;

Mort Beyer, Modern Air's executive vice president from 1967 until 1971 as well as the airline's president and vice president of the National Air Carrier Association in 1971 and founder of United States aviation consultancy Avmark.

Lelco was the agriculture business of Kim Lundgren's family in the United States.

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. Leonard Lundgren was the first chairman.

After the company was issued an airline licence and acquired two Boeing 707 jet airliners previously owned by Trans World Airlines, Air Berlin USA commenced revenue services on 28 April 1979 with a flight from Berlin-Tegel to Palma de Mallorca. Plans were made to start long-haul flights on West Berlin-Brussels-Florida routes, in cooperation with Air Florida (an agreement to that effect had been signed in February 1979).

In 1980, two Boeing 737-200s were leased from Air Florida. In 1981, Air Berlin USA continued its weekly scheduled Boeing 707 service on the Berlin Tegel Airport - Brussels - Orlando route; however, by 1982, the 707s had been phased out, and during most of the 1980s, Air Berlin USA operated only a single 737-200 or (from 1986) a 737-300. In 1990 and 1991, two Boeing 737-400s were also placed into service.

1990–2000: New investors and expansion

German reunification led to significant changes to the European aviation market, and in particular in Berlin: German airlines now gained access to the city. In 1991, Air Berlin (which had 90 employees at the time) was restructured as Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG, a German-registered company, with several German investors joining Kim Lundgren, the original founder, thereby bringing the ownership in line with German foreign-control requirements. Joachim Hunold (de), a former sales and marketing director with LTU International, now led the company.

Following an order for ten Boeing 737-800s, Air Berlin grew and by 1999, the fleet grew to twelve aircraft. In 2001, Air Berlin and Hapag-Lloyd Flug became the first airlines in the world to have their Boeing 737-800s fitted with blended winglets, wingtip devices that are intended to improve fuel efficiency.

Air Berlin introduced scheduled flights (which could be booked directly with the airline rather than via a tour operator) in 1997, initially linking a number of secondary German airports to Mallorca. By 2002, 35 percent of Air Berlin's tickets were sold directly. In the same year, the airline expanded beyond holiday destinations as low-fare flights marketed as "City Shuttle" to London, Barcelona, Milan and Vienna started. Besides Berlin-Tegel, these routes were opened at six German airports (Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Münster/Osnabrück, Nuremberg, and Paderborn/Lippstadt) that until then had not been served by one of the rising European low-cost carriers. In what later became a hallmark for Air Berlin as a "semi-low cost carrier", the airline offered complimentary meals and seat reservations, in contrast to its competitors Buzz, Hapag-Lloyd Express, Ryanair and Virgin Express.

2000–2006: Becoming Germany's second-largest airline

In November 2001, the delivery flight of a Boeing 737-800 fitted with winglets set a record: the aircraft with the registration code D-ABBC flew 8,345 kilometres non-stop from Seattle (Boeing Field), USA to Berlin (TXL), Germany in 9 hours, 10 minutes.

In January 2004, Air Berlin announced it would cooperate with Niki, a Vienna-based airline. As part of the deal, Air Berlin took a 24% stake in Niki.

In 2005, the Group reorganised its corporate structure. It established Air Berlin plc (registered in England) into which it reversed Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG and subsidiaries. It was suggested that the reason for the group to establish a UK-based PLC instead of a German-based AG was to avoid the need to have a supervisory board and employee representation as required by the German law of Mitbestimmung or co-determination.

In 2006, Air Berlin went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.