With effect from 15th November 2008 Air Berlin has cancelled all flight contracts for the scheduled service of its subsidiary, dba. From Saturday onwards the six aircraft still being operated by dba will only be used on an ad hoc basis. The scheduled service will be carried out by aircraft and crews of Air Berlin, the par-ent company.

On Friday a token strike by flight attendants belonging to the German services union Ver.di had resulted in several flights being cancelled or delayed. A Ver.di official had announced further token strikes for next week. Karl Lotz, Executive Director at Air Berlin responsible for flight operations, commented: “Since we want to save our passengers the inconvenience that would be caused by fur-ther strikes, we have cancelled the flight contracts with dba. There are ongoing talks between the union and staff representation to find a socially acceptable solution for dba’s air crew. We are offering pilots and also flight attendants rea-sonable job opportunities with Air Berlin at their current locations. We are still planning to discontinue dba’ flight operations on 30th November 2008.”