Joachim Hunold, chief executive of Air Berlin who has led the company for 20 years, has resigned as part of a major restructuring aimed at ensuring future profitability.
Hunold believes a change at the top can accelerate the restructuring process. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Hartmut Mehdorn, former chief executive of Deutsche Bahn, the German railway operator.
Under measures announced yesterday, Air Berlin will cut capacity by more than one million seats in the second half of 2011 and reduce its fleet size by eight aircraft. Unprofitable routes, including from Frankfurt to Hamburg and Düsseldorf to Paris, would be scrapped. The airline’s services would in future be concentrated on the Berlin, Düsseldorf, Palma de Mallorca and Vienna hubs.
Air Berlin reported a net loss of €43.9m in the second quarter of 2011, compared with a loss of €56.9m in the same period a year before.