Niki (airline)

Niki (also styled as NIKI or flyNiki, legally NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH) was[1] an Austrian low-cost airline headquartered in Office Park I at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat.[2][3] It operated scheduled and charter services to European and North African leisure destinations from Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and Innsbruck and also started services from several German airports in March 2017. Niki had a variety of owners, including two stints of ownership under Niki Lauda. In January 2018, the airline was acquired by Lauda, an airline that also had ties to Niki Lauda.[4]

Niki
IATA ICAO Callsign
HG NLY FLYNIKI
Founded2003
Ceased operations14 December 2017 (merged into Lauda)
Fleet size30
Destinations36
HeadquartersSchwechat, Austria
Key peopleOliver Lackmann, CEO
Employees~836
Websiteflyniki.com

History

Early years
Niki Airbus A321-200 wearing the airline's first livery

In 2003, Niki Lauda, ex-Grand Prix driver and founder of Lauda Air, acquired the former Aero Lloyd Austria operation. The airline started operations on 28 November 2003.

Although Niki was often described as "low-cost", it provided full services, such as free refreshments, newspapers, and baggage. It offered a sandwich or a cold snack, soft drinks, juice, tea, and coffee on all short-haul flights as well as on charter routes to Greece, Tunisia, and Turkey. On mid-haul charter flights to the Canary Islands and Egypt, all passengers were offered a warm snack. Also, gourmet menus from Demel could be ordered before the flight. There was also a buy on board service.[5]

Development as an Air Berlin subsidiary
Niki Airbus A321-200 in the livery used until 2012

On 9 January 2004, Niki announced cooperation with Air Berlin. In late 2011, Niki merged completely with Air Berlin, sharing operations, booking systems, and aircraft. On 20 March 2012, Niki became an "affiliate member" of Oneworld as a subsidiary company of Air Berlin.[6] Starting in late 2012, Niki successively repainted their aircraft in the Air Berlin paint scheme, using the Niki logo only at the nose. The new paint scheme was applied during regular C checks.

In October 2014, Niki announced the cancellation of their flights from Vienna to Copenhagen, Moscow, and Frankfurt due to decreasing demand. In exchange, new leisure routes will be started by summer 2015.[7] Also in spring 2015, Niki started to replace its fleet of Embraer 190s with Airbus A319-100s from its parent, Air Berlin, with the used Embraers being transferred to Helvetic Airways.[8]

Sale to Etihad Airways

On 5 December 2016, parent company Air Berlin announced plans to sell its entire 49 percent stake in Niki to its own minority owner Etihad Airways. Etihad Airways itself would merge Niki into a new joint-venture to be created with the German leisure carrier TUIfly.[9][10] At the same time, Niki and Air Berlin would exchange several aircraft to harmonize each fleet.[9] It had also been announced that Niki would take over several routes to southern European, north African, and Turkish leisure destinations from Air Berlin as part of the new joint-venture.[10] However, the sale never happened.

Also in December 2016, Niki announced the termination of its only medium-haul route, from Vienna to Abu Dhabi, Etihad's home base, by March 2017.[11] Niki later also announced it plans to terminate all of its 12 routes from Vienna to non-leisure destinations such as Milan or Zürich by 30 January 2017.[12][13] In January 2017, it was also announced that Niki will cease all operations to and from Linz Airport at short notice due to the restructuring measures. The announcement was made after the 2017 schedule had already been made available for booking.[14] For the 2017 season, Niki reduced the number of flights from Austria to 56 flights a week to 20 destinations, compared to 34 destinations in 2016.[15]

Shortly after, it was announced that Niki would take over several Air Berlin leisure routes to and from Germany.[16] It also has been announced that Niki's fleet will be switched over to Airbus A321s only while the smaller A319s and A320s are handed over to Air Berlin.[9] It has also been announced that TUI fly Deutschland will additionally start to operate 15 Boeing 737s currently wet-leased to Air Berlin for Niki.[17]

Failed takeover by Lufthansa and IAG

On 17 August 2017, Niki's parent Air Berlin announced it was filing for bankruptcy but that all operations would continue until further notice. On 9 October 2017, Air Berlin announced to its staff that it would cease all remaining operations under its own brand name, but that Niki flights would continue after this date.

On 12 October 2017, it was announced that German Lufthansa would purchase some of the assets from Air Berlin which included Niki and operations would continue and jobs were to be saved.[18] On 24 October 2017, it was announced that Niki was to be absorbed into Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary Eurowings Europe.[19] It was announced that Lufthansa plans to cease the Niki brand by the end of 2017 altogether.[20]

However, on 13 December 2017, Lufthansa pulled out of the agreement due to signs from the European Commission that the merger would not be approved.[21] Niki declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations on 14 December 2017.[1] The day after, former owner Niki Lauda expressed interest in repurchasing the airline named after him.[22]

On 29 December 2017, it was announced that International Airlines Group (IAG), parent company of British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling, would acquire for 36.5 million euros major parts of Niki including 15 Airbus A321 aircraft and traffic rights in Düsseldorf, Munich, Vienna, Zürich and Palma de Mallorca.[23] IAG planned to establish a new Austrian subsidiary of Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling as a replacement for Niki.[23] For this purpose, a new subsidiary of Vueling in Austria was to be founded and act independently. Of the approx. 1000 Niki employees, 740 were to be retained. On January 8, 2018, a Berlin administrative court ruled that only an Austrian court had the jurisdiction to handle the insolvency of Niki.[24]

Subsequent takeovers

On January 23, 2018, the Austrian Press Agency announced that Niki Lauda's company Lauda had beaten IAG in the bid for Niki, and would take over the company.[4] Less than two months later, Ryanair agreed to purchase a majority stake in Laudamotion,[25] initially acquiring almost 25 percent for less than 50 million euros ($61.7 million) with the intent to purchase another 50 percent at a later date. The deal was subsequently approved by the European Union.[26] 11 planes from Niki are being operated by Laudamotion as of April 2018.

Destinations

Niki operated scheduled services to leisure destinations mainly in Spain, Portugal, and North Africa from its home base in Vienna as well as several more airports throughout Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.[27]

Codeshare agreements

Niki maintained codeshares with the following airlines:[28]

Fleet
Niki Airbus A320-200 in the latest livery used from 2012 until 2017

Prior to the shutdown in December 2017, the fleet of Niki consisted of the following aircraft:[29]

Niki fleet
Aircraft In service Orders Passengers Notes
C Y Total
Airbus A320-200 2 3[29] – 180 180
Airbus A321-200 15 — – 210 210
212 212
Boeing 737-700 5 — – 144 144 Operated by TUI fly Deutschland[17][29]
Boeing 737-800 8 — – 186 186 Operated by TUI fly Deutschland[17][29]
Total 30 3
gollark: Heavpoot's Game (2) less so.
gollark: Heavpoot's Game (1) is definitely a thing which was written.
gollark: For example, I know a bit about C, Go and Java, so I can criticize them better than someone who doesn't.
gollark: Rust has, well, design.
gollark: It's good to know about languages you don't actually use!

References
  1. austrianaviation.net - "Grounding for Niki" (German) 13 December 2017
  2. "Contact form Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine." Niki. Retrieved on 25 January 2011. "NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH Office Park I, Top B03 A-1300 Wien"
  3. "Information about the city plan." City of Schwechat. Retrieved on 5 September 2009.
  4. "Report: Ex-Formula 1 star Lauda buys back airline he founded". The News & Observer. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  5. "book cheap flights online - flyniki". flyniki.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  6. "günstige Flüge suchen, billigste Flüge buchen - flyniki". flyniki.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  7. "Niki: Air Berlin bestätigt Streckenstreichungen". austrianaviation.net. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  8. "A319 bekommen Niki-Beklebung". austrianaviation.net. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  9. aero.de - "Air Berlin separates Niki and A321-fleet" (German) 5 December 2016
  10. austrianaviation.net - "Finalized: Air Berlin sells Niki to Etihad" (German) 5 December 2016
  11. routesonline.com - NIKI ends Abu Dhabi service in March 2017 26 December 2016
  12. "Niki stellt City-Flüge mit Ende Jänner ein - Austrian Aviation Net". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  13. "Abbau in Österreich: Niki stellt Städteflüge Ende Januar ein - aeroTELEGRAPH". 7 January 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  14. Nachrichten, Oberösterreichische. "Fly Niki hebt auch als Ferienflieger weniger oft ab". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  15. aero.de - "Niki also reduces leisure offers" (German) 10 January 2017
  16. "Air Berlin and Niki announce new restructured network". Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  17. http://www.austrianaviation.net/detail/niki-flottet-15-boeing-737-ein/
  18. Air Berlin Seals Asset With Lufthansa
  19. Luftnasa to Ditch Niki Brand
  20. austrianaviation.net - "Niki to be history by year's end" (German) 25 October 2017
  21. "Übernahme gescheitert: Lufthansa verzichtet auf Niki" (in German). Tagesschau. 13 December 2017. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  22. "Lauda will Niki übernehmen". Spiegel Online (in German). 15 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  23. ch-aviation.com - IAG acquires Niki in €36.5mn deal 29 December 2017
  24. "Takeover of Niki airline by British Airways parent hits snag". USA Today. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  25. "Ryanair to buy Niki Lauda airline in challenge to Lufthansa". 20 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2018.
  26. "EU unconditionally approves Ryanair purchase of LaudaMotion". reuters.com. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  27. flyniki.com - Flightplan Archived 11 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 15 November 2017
  28. "Profile on NIKI". CAPA. Centre for Aviation. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  29. planespotters.net - Niki Fleet Details and History retrieved 15 November 2017

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