The deal will see Easyjet lease up to 25 aircraft and take over the insolvent German airline's Tegel airport slots.
Companies: easyJet plc
Easyjet (LON: EZJ) is set to boost its German presence with the news today it will acquire a chunk of Air Berlin's operations at the capital's primary airport, Berlin Tegel.
The €40m (£35m) agreement will see Easyjet lease up to 25 A320 aircraft from the troubled airline, as well as take over its slots at Tegel.
EasyJet has launched a recruitment campaign to attract around 1000 of Air Berlin's pilots and cabin crew who will be recruited over the coming months.
The presence at Tegel is sure to transform the status of the airline in Germany, who has previously flown to Berlin through Schoenefeld, the old East Berlin airport which has been favoured by low-cost airlines.
The deal means Easyjet will have the largest presence at Tegel, trumping the German national carrier Lufthansa, and will operate a full schedule to TXL from summer next year.
The announcement comes days after Air Berlin flew its last ever flight, a late-night leg from Munich to the capital. The flight was forty minutes late as pilots made a small diversion in their approach to Tegel to form a heart shape in the flight path. The flight number was also changed to BER4EVR.
The much-loved yet much-troubled German airline has struggled for years and has seen the same fate as UK airline Monarch who announced it had ceased trading at the beginning of October. Alitalia was the third European airline in six months to announce it too had begun insolvency proceedings.
Shares in Easyjet jumped 2% to 1304p after news of the agreement.
Easyjet seems to be navigating the increasingly tough European short-haul market better than its competitors, flying increased numbers over summer 2017. A trading update earlier this month said the Group expects full-year PBT to be at the upper end of its guidance.
With a Market Cap of c. £5bn EZJ trades at a current PE ratio of 20x versus the industry median of 12x. Revenues have grown an average of 6% YoY over the past five years while Net Profit margins have improved an average of 13% YoY over the same period.
