In comparison, Lufthansa, which is taking on Air Berlin operations with about 81 aircraft, expects to invest around 1.5 billion euros in total. Air Berlin had been the main rival for inner-Germany routes, while others like easyJet and Ryanair had focused on routes to and from Germany. Air Berlin was founded nearly 40 years ago and carried around 30 million passengers a year. Thomas Cook's German airline Condor, which had also been interested in some of Air Berlin, declined to comment on Saturday. The grounding of Air Berlin from Saturday means passengers in Germany could struggle to find plane tickets this winter.

Source: New York Times October 28, 2017 06:51 UTC