Air Berlin/NIKI post a net loss of €272M over 2011

[tolipanebas]

Air Berlin PLC, the holding company of German low cost carrier Air Berlin and Austrian low cost carrier NIKI, posted a net loss of €272M in 2011, significantly worse than in 2010 (-€97M).

Despite the fact the number of passengers rose by 1.2% to 35.3M and revenues rose 13.7% to €4.23BN, the operational result for 2011 was negative too with a loss of €247M, compared to a small operational loss of €17M in 2010.

Air Berlin PLC blames last year's winter weather in Europe, the Arab spring, unsustainably high oil costs and a new German aviation tax for its very poor financial performance.

Air Berlin PLC is 30%-owned by Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad.

More information can be found here:
http://ir.airberlin.com/en/ir/ad-hoc-re ... EANS-Adhoc

[tolipanebas]

Interestingly enough, the pre-tax net result is even worse at -€359M, but thanks to a tax benefit of €87.0M the net result for the reporting year 2011 amounted to just -€271M.

For an airline group the size of Air Berlin / NIKI that is a huge pre-tax net loss!