Air Berlin cuts more long-haul services

INSOLVENT GERMAN airline Air Berlin may drop more long-haul routes next week to cut costs as it races to find investors before it runs out of cash, people familiar with the matter said.

Air Berlin, Germany’s secondlargest airline, was forced to file for bankruptcy protection last month after shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses.

Its planes are kept aloft thanks to a €150m (£137.57m) government bridge loan, which will last only until the middle of November at the latest. Air Berlin said it received the first instalment of the money on Friday.

The carrier had already announced plans to bring forward by a month to October 1 the cancellation of services from Berlin to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and from Dusseldorf to Boston.

This week it also said it was dropping flights from Berlin to New York and Miami, and from Duesseldorf to Orlando as of September 25.

“The next step will be that further long-haul planes from Dusseldorf will be grounded,” one person familiar with the industry said.

Air Berlin said talk of cancelling more routes was “speculation”.

A handful of bidders is vying for Air Berlin’s assets, with 140 leased aircraft and valuable takeoff and landing slots in Germany up for grabs.