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Delayed flight – again! But this is the last time: on October 27, 2017 at 23:46, the flight AB 6210 from Air Berlin has landed in Berlin-Tegel. Thousands of spectators, including many employees, wait an hour longer than expected on the observation deck and on the track. Pilot David McCaleb performs a few additional loops in the airspace over Berlin and Brandenburg. On the radar, you can see with some imagination that his trajectory describes a heart – a last salute of the "Airline at heart" after almost 40 years of operation.
When the machine arrives at the terminal, airport firefighters send fountains into the night sky. TV channel commentators, who had to tell the same story for the umpteenth time to broadcast their live broadcasts, report some tears of emotion – and the airline's final end. In fact, it was only a chapter. Today, a year later, Air Berlin continues to employ many people, committees, institutions and soon the courts.
Katharina Dröge, member of the Green Bundestag, never let go of the subject. In August, a year after the bankruptcy of Air Berlin, the Cologne-based company had sent a list of questions to the Federal Minister of the Economy, Peter Altmaier (CDU), and to the Minister of Transport, Andreas Scheuer (CSU). She hopes "the answers that could help the public understand why the bankruptcy of Air Berlin worked in this way".
Has it been spoken that with Lufthansa or with other potential buyers?
Dröge asks questions such as: "Why did the federal government hide until today the report on the basis of which it had granted the guarantee of 150 million euros from the bank? KfW to Air Berlin? " And: "Why has the government been in close contact for months? Lufthansa to the Air Berlin question, but never with other potential buyers?"
The Minister of Economic Affairs, Altmaier, answers Dröge just a few days ago. He does not share the view that the government has left issues unanswered up to now. "The decisions made in August 2017 by the federal government to provide Air Berlin with a credit guarantee guaranteed by the government were correct and justified by the finance law," writes Altmaier about the restless weekend before August 15, 2017. He was then Chancery Chief. "It was about maintaining air operations to ensure the return of tens of thousands of pbadengers during the holiday period and Air Berlin to allow an orderly exit from the market instead of a messy bankruptcy." The government has also "significantly improved employee prospects". ,
Minister of Economic Affairs talks about trade secrets
The minister points out that even before the bankruptcy, Lufthansa was in discussion to take back shares of the company. It can therefore be badumed that Lufthansa was able to badess the value of the company and the product of potential sales. "It would have been negligent not to use Lufthansa's expertise here, given the time constraints that prevent a full badessment of Air Berlin," said Altmaier, who will succeed Britgitte Zypries and her secretary of State, Matthias Machnig (both of the SPD), who then led the negotiations.
With respect to the details of the opinion of PwC's auditors, Altmaier refers to "business and commercial secrets that may be relevant to the ongoing insolvency proceedings and the resulting repayment of the KfW Loan". ".
MEP Dröge does not satisfy this: "The bankruptcy of Air Berlin is one of the biggest economic scandals in recent years, and the federal government has been trying for a year to hide its role in this scandal. Minister Altmaier's letter fits into this tradition and prevents parliamentary enlightenment, "she scandalized. "In particular, the content of an expert opinion from the PwC management consulting firm is essential to understand the context of the federal government's € 150 million guarantee and the role of Lufthansa. Since the federal government is preventing access to the record and therefore parliamentary control, we now complain about Green in the Federal Constitutional Court. "
Green: "Put all the cards on the table"
Why this enthusiasm, why this effort – a year after the last flight? Especially since the "key messages" of the report are already known to the Bundestag, as Altmaier claims. "Many employees are still wondering, a year after the last flight of Air Berlin, why there has been no transfer of activity," Dröge said. And: "In November 2017, thousands of Air Berlin customers were stranded because of the high cost of airline tickets, although the federal government wanted to prevent that and they would like to understand . " In addition, Parliament must know whether the federal government, with a guarantee of a million euros, carefully weighed the risks or acted solely in the interest of Lufthansa. "I urge Minister Altmaier to finally put all the cards on the table."
The insolvency administrator Lucas Flöther from Leipzig has already accompanied numerous proceedings. But this "is not comparable to any of my previous ones," he says. The reason is probably that the brand was so well known and the company so big and that a KfW loan was granted. In addition, the number of many more than a million creditors "almost unprecedented" and requires "special efforts in the treatment of the process," writes Flöther.
The insolvency administrator and his team have accomplished a great deal. "The use of badets is well advanced.All recyclable airlines are known to be sold.The other badets could be widely used in very successful auctions," recalls Flöther, during a large auction sale. line in all that was imaginable – company cars on three meter long airplane models with pilot uniforms, cups and chocolate hearts palletized The highest bidder was sold at auction. Only the sale of trademark rights and Internet domains is still ongoing. In the meantime, Berlin politicians had also asked the Berlin state to secure www.airberlin.de.
"Moreover, wherever claims exist, payments are mbadively used – a process that can last for years, as the experience has shown," Flöther said. PwC has been tasked to look into possible liability actions "against legal persons". This test was conducted for a period of up to ten years from the bankruptcy bankruptcy. She will definitely take some time.
PwC reviewers now move so many former managers. Since the resignation of the longtime Air Berlin boss, Joachim Hunold, also sitting aboard the last machine, many bosses have pressed the latch. Hartmut Mehdorn, a former member of the board of directors, could not subsequently improve his reputation as president of the Berlin airport company. He was followed by the unfortunate Austrian Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, then by Stefan Pichler, who came from Fiji Airways and made a wave – without taking anything away. And finally, Thomas Winkelmann, confidant of Lufthansa's director, Carsten Spohr, who, even after the bankruptcy, insisted that his contract, of an amount of 950000 € per year, be executed until 2021, while ordinary employees do their work. lost. Winkelmann then abandoned the request in part – and left. Various auditors and financial advisers will certainly be examined by auditors: Hans-Joachim Körber, long-standing chairman of the Supervisory Board. What has he done all these years?
The state credit can be fully refunded
The Air Berlin forums are also the subject of discussion: Was it appropriate that the Federal Bank KfW, in August 2017, injects 150 million euros into a business dying in order to d & # 39; To prevent the landing of a few thousand tourists? Would she have received the order from the government if the bankruptcy petition had not been filed in the middle of the hot phase of the Bundestag election campaign? It will be difficult to prove one or the other.
After all: "With regard to the repayment of the KfW loan, we now badume that we can repay the majority of the amount paid on the realized and future liquidations and future calls over the next few years – without interest," says Insolvency administrator Flöther. "We may even be able to repay the entire amount we paid." Up to now, about 80 million euros, more than half of the loan, have been repaid. "The other creditors of Air Berlin will probably receive payments only if the Etihad shareholder has additional funds."
The largest shareholder, Etihad Airways, the United Arab Emirates airline, played. The airline had, after the withdrawal of Joachim Hunold in 2011, almost 30% of Air Berlin and so has virtually taken control. The boss of Etihad, the Australian James Hogan, has never been allowed to admit, because Air Berlin would not have been officially a "German" airline and would have lost its rights to take off and land in the EU. The entrance at that time saved Air Berlin from a financial collapse, the owners of Etihad, the royal family of Abu Dhabi, continued to transfer money and initially sought to establish Air Berlin as a kind of high-end airline, the best-paid airline to the Etihad hub in the Persian Gulf. promoted.
With the participation in Air Berlin, a much larger airline than the mother Etihad, sheikhs. Air Berlin has become a grave of billions. The boss of Etihad, James Hogan, was fired. In Abu Dhabi, you will not be very understanding if a German bankruptcy trustee wants to raise funds.
Bankruptcy Trustee Takes Etihad
But the insolvency administrator, Flöther, firmly states: "The claims against Etihad are potentially the most important badet of the process." I suppose Etihad's "comfort letter" is a tangible comfort letter. and that Etihad can be held responsible for the promise of payment. "This is supported by opinions. A candle of smoke? Or is Flöther triggering a diplomatic crisis with the UAE?
Björn Schmidt joined Air Berlin in 2004 and was one of the last to leave the company. His employment contract ended in April this year, six months after the last flight. The latter, aged 35, directed the cabin crew as "Purser", for example on the long-haul between Berlin and New York. In the field, he trained crew members and executives, performing castings for new stewards and hostesses. "It was the right mix for me," he says.
Shortly after the last flight, Schmidt met with Eurowings and Easyjet, who had taken over part of the Air Berlin fleet. For these airlines, he should have yielded about one third of his last salary – and he would have stolen exclusively. "Just flying is like driving a bus someday, I soon realized I was reorienting myself." Today, he is recruiting for the Robert Half Personal Office in Berlin, a US provider of personnel services – badistants and strategic buyers.
Great cohesion of Berliners ex-air
Schmidt earns less than Air Berlin. "I do not feel bad," he says – also because it works well for him privately. He moved with his husband to the countryside near Potsdam, he now has time to walk with his dog. But the story of Air Berlin is not complete for him: Schmidt is on forums with colleagues of the time network, he has private friends of that time. To date, Air Berlin is remembered two to three times a week, he said. And there are usually good memories: "The cohesion was and is really remarkable at Air Berlin."
In addition, Björn Schmidt was waiting for flight AB 6210 that night on the Tegel tarmac. He also heard some criticism when the legend of Air Berlin, Joachim Hunold, was crossing the bridge. "Yes, maybe the megalomania of Achim was part of the problem," says Schmidt. "But there were enough managers around him who were lucky to get scammed."
The employment agency Christoph Möller, head of the North Berlin employment agency, remembers very well these weeks last year. Immediately after the bankruptcy announced in August 2017, he formed a team. At the head of the Rostock Employment Agency, he accompanied the bankruptcy of the former Wadan shipyard on the Baltic coast years ago. He had an idea of what could happen to his team. About 2,300 of Air Berlin's 8,000 residents lived in Berlin – and they should have asked for work in the event of an immediate collapse.
This came because of the state's credit only to a creeping death. After misleading information from some company committees, many of the airline's employees did not immediately stop working – baduming that they would continue to work under the same conditions at the same time. sale of the company. However, they did not hurt themselves by not stating: the unemployment benefit can only be paid from the date of the application and not retroactively. "Many employees were apparently unaware of the risk they run," says Christoph Möller, a creditor committee member today.
The Berlin employment office has opened an office in the offices of Air Berlin. There were also job fairs attended by the public enterprises of Berlin, from the LPP to the prison. The Berlin administration has thousands of jobs to fill. "But I do not know if a significant number of people would have moved to national service," says Möller. Most of the employees were found fairly quickly elsewhere. Möller is satisfied: "Nearly 90% of the 1,500 Air Berlin registered with the Berlin employment agencies have already been welcomed by other employers," he said. And the few hundred who have not contacted, probably too.
Few answers to old questions
Including participants in the transfer company, which was created with state support, only about 100 people are registered as "looking for a job". "Looking for a job is a full time job," says Möller. Look for jobs, write applications, conduct job interviews: "A transfer company can and must play a useful supporting role." Möller is optimistic that even the last remaining customers will not become permanent recipients of help. "For the most part, unemployment is an episode of the CV, not a destiny," he said. "We are working on it."
A year after the landing of flight AB 6210, the story of Air Berlin is far from over.
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