EANS-News: Air Berlin PLC / Germany´s Federal Cartel Office approves Air Berlin takeover of TUIfly city route sector

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Corporate news transmitted by euro adhoc. The issuer/originator is solely
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Joint Ventures/Cooperation/Collaboration/Strategic Collaboration

Berlin (euro adhoc) - Air Berlin PLC and TUI Travel PLC welcome
positive decision by the German Federal Cartel Office that allows Air
Berlin to take over the city flights network of the Hapag-Lloyd
Fluggesellschaft mbH (TUIfly) airline, starting with the 2009/10
winter flight schedule. At the end of March of this year, TUI and Air
Berlin signed a corresponding agreement and (originally) a 19.9%
cross-shareholding deal between their two airlines was submitted to
the German Federal Cartel Office for approval. However, the
cross-holding originally planned will now not be implemented by the
two companies. Whether TUI can take a 9.9% stake in Air Berlin PLC or
whether a company belonging to the TUI Travel PLC group will pay the
sum of EUR 15 million to Air Berlin PLC depends on the outcome of
further talks with the German Federal Cartel Office. In recent weeks
the cartel authorities in Italy, Austria and Portugal had already
agreed to the Air Berlin takeover of TUIfly´s inter-city flights. The
approval of the Spanish cartel office is still awaited.

Through its takeover of the TUIfly city routes, Air Berlin is
strengthening its presence in the Cologne, Stuttgart and Italy
markets. The view of Air Berlin CEO Joachim Hunold is clear: "Air
Berlin is thus expanding its network of European and domestic German
routes, which is extremely important for business customers in
particular. At the same time, Air Berlin´s position within the
challenging economic environment will be enhanced."

"Air Berlin´s takeover of the TUIfly city route sector enables us, in
our German airline business, to concentrate on the remaining
touristic flights portfolio. This in turn will place TUIfly on a
stable economic footing with a better competitive position within the
European air travel market," pointed out Dr. Volker Böttcher,
Managing Director Central Europe TUI Travel PLC.

The approval of the agreement means that all previous inter-city
flights will become the commercial responsibility of Air Berlin with
the start of the 2009/10 winter schedule (25 October 2009) - one of
the key components of the contract. This concerns all domestic German
flights plus particularly those to Italy and Austria. All flights
already booked with TUIfly for these routes will then be handled by
Air Berlin - with their flight number, standards of quality and usual
additional services. To this end, Air Berlin will charter aircraft
from TUIfly by way of a long-term leasing contract: initially 13
aircraft for the 2009/10 winter schedule and then 14 aircraft from
summer 2010 onwards (crews included). The touristic TUI routes (e.g.
Balearics, Canaries, Turkey) will be marketed unchanged under the
TUIfly brand as before. TUIfly will be deploying 23 aircraft in this
market, with the standards of quality customers expect of TUIfly. All
touristic TUIfly flights, and in future the routes of other airlines
too, can still be booked via www.tuifly.com. In the next weeks all
TUIfly city flights will still be available via www.tuifly.com;
thereafter they will be on offer at www.airberlin.com. TUIfly
customers will experience no changes for bookings with a date of
travel up to and including 24 October 2009.

end of announcement euro adhoc
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ots Originaltext: Air Berlin PLC & Co Luftverkehrs KG
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Further inquiry note:

Hans-Christoph Noack

Director Corporate Communications, Air Berlin

phone: +49 30 3434 1500

fax: +49 30 3434 1509

e-mail: abpresse@airberlin.com

Branche: Air Transport
ISIN: GB00B128C026
WKN: AB1000
Index: SDAX, Classic All Share, Prime All Share
Börsen: Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard
Berlin / free trade
Hamburg / free trade
Stuttgart / free trade
Düsseldorf / free trade
München / free trade