Market Exit of Air Berlin: An Analysis of Competitive Pricing on Domestic O&Ds in the German Market

Abstract

In autumn 2017, Air Berlin, the second biggest player in the German airline market, discontinued its operations due to bankruptcy. Prior to this, the struggling carrier had already been reducing its domestic capacities and adjusting its service patterns, which had impacts on the competitive situation for the remaining carriers on various domestic origin-destination (O&D) markets. This paper aims at identifying resulting changes of, e.g., the yields generated in intra-German air transport. In the German domestic market, the relevant competition per route can be narrowed down to a few players as opposed to continental or intercontinental flights. We found evidence that on 90% of the TOP20 O&Ds, representing 96% of the total passenger volume, revenue per pax (as an indicator for yield) increased. We found FRA-BER and MUC-BER – both O&Ds with intense Easyjet competition to be the only O&Ds that did not show an increase in price/yield after the market exit of Air Berlin.