Air Berlin carries more than 2 mln passengers in November

For the seventh month in a row Air Berlin carried more than 2 mln passengers in November.

Together with its subsidiaries LTU and Belair, Air Berlin welcomed 2,048,196 passengers on board for a 19.2% increase over the corresponding month of the previous year.

Fleet capacity utilization improved to 72.1%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points over the corresponding month of the previous year. Flight revenue per available seat kilometer (ASK) increased from 4.35 to 4.41 Eurocents, i.e. an increase of 1.36%.
From January to November 2007, the accumulated number of passengers on Air Berlin totaled 25,958,556, an increase of 10.2%, while capacity utilization over the period improved by 1.5 percentage points to 77.7%.

Although the number of passengers increased according to plan, fleet capacity utilization for November was lower than expected. Considerable technical problems were experienced merging the capacity control systems of Air Berlin and LTU, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

As a result, the originally planned capacity cuts for the months of November and December could not be implemented to their full extent. Therefore, both the seat load factor and yield development were not sufficiently positive.

The non-recurrent charges for these two months amount to a double-digit figure in the lower million euro range. This is a one-time charge, since the system integration has been completed in the meantime.

For 2008, Air Berlin is right on track with capacity adjustment. It is anticipated that the non-recurrent charges can be offset with non-recurrent income in order to reach the 2007 annual target.