Christian Lesjak, CEO NIKI, and Paul Gregorowitsch, Chief Commercial Officer airberlin, present the new livery of the NIKI fleet in airberlin design

Captain Sebastian Houben flew the first NIKI Airbus A320 in the new livery from Istanbul to Vienna

In the light of the current economic and political circumstances, airberlin and NIKI are repositioning themselves to exploit synergies, eliminate duplicated structures and move together with confidence towards the future. This includes NIKI adapting its appearance in keeping with airberlin design. On 21st November the first NIKI Airbus A320 in the new livery flew from Istanbul to Vienna.

The NIKI Airbus A320 was given the new look over the past weeks in the course of its C-check, a mandatory maintenance check which is carried out every two years. The airberlin design was adopted and familiar new elements associated with NIKI were added.  The entire NIKI fleet, which belongs to the airberlin group, will gradually receive the new livery.  In the future “The spirit of NIKI” will not just be part of the new logo, but also a guarantee of the renowned Austrian quality and perfect service.

NIKI will continue to grow in capacity in 2013. The airline’s fleet will be converted into a fleet consisting entirely of Airbus aircraft. Over the past few years NIKI – as part of the airberlin group – has generated double-digit growth rates and will transport around five million passengers in the current year. In autumn 2011 Vienna was defined as a hub for the airberlin group, meaning that new transfer segments are being targeted, both in business travel and in the tourism sector. This development fits in with the airberlin group strategy: passengers are offered global networks through the strategic partnership with Etihad Airways and membership of the oneworld® alliance.

Paul Gregorowitsch, Chief Commercial Officer airberlin said: “NIKI is now clearly recognisable as an airline belonging to the airberlin group. In addition to the standardisation of its livery NIKI’s fleet will also be standardised. We will thus create an even more efficient platform in Vienna.

A fleet consisting entirely of Airbus aircraft supports our strategy for the Vienna hub: alongside our scheduled services we are pushing the development of tourist destinations for the whole of the airberlin group.”

Christian Lesjak, CEO of NIKI said: “NIKI’s Airbus fleet is an essential part of the airberlin group. The entire NIKI fleet can now be deployed flexibly on both scheduled and charter services.

With the introduction of Airbus aircraft we will be able to increase our seating capacity again next year without increasing the number of aircraft we operate – in spite of the difficult economic circumstances which exist in many European markets.”