A week ago air berlin filed for Germany’s version of bankruptcy. The carrier has been in trouble for some time, has lost billions of dollars, and their patron Etihad has turned off the spigot.
Germany itself stepped in with a loan guarantee to keep the airline afloat while they figure out options. Most likely that involves selling off pieces of the airline, rather than finding an investor for the whole oneworld airline.
Things have evolved rapidly, and their topbonus frequent flyer program has essentially shut down. They suspended both mileage-earning and mileage redemption. Their co-brand credit card will no longer award miles.
Underscoring just how much this does not appear to be an airline with a future as a going concern, their entire 60 person e-commerce team has set up a website looking for jobs. (HT: You Have Been Upgraded)
The website offers up an entire e-commerce team as a package (because plenty of companies are looking for those) but also have resumes of individuals categorized by field: UI/UX; Email Marketing; Performance Marketing; SEO / Content; Data Intelligence; Product Management; Apps and Innovation.
This isn’t a rogue operation, either, it appears to be led by the Vice President of the department.
And they partner testimonals — and head shots.
I will say that as you dive into the site and try to drill down into their specialty areas, the website isn’t super responsive. Although in fairness to the team any blind spots in web site performance were hardly the problems at air berlin.
Generous of the VP to do that.
Wouldn’t happen in communist US where the government keeps bailing out the airlines.
Airberlin’s website is hardly a stellar example of their capabilities if they are looking for a job…
Best of luck to them.
Even if I didn’t need to hire an e-commerce team I’d consider hiring the VP as he must be a decent leader to put this together.
Best of luck to all of them. Never a good time for people in those circumstances.
The CEO of airberlin in a (German) interview over the weekend confirmed that he didn’t expect the brand to be around for the long-term. They are selling of the pieces and will let the company with its mountain of debt go down…
Airberlin just fired VP Pascal Volz yesterday due to this website. Not surprising, since he offered an entire Ecom strategy for free without permission.
Any change you have a link for this news? Thanks!