Air Berlin has not been in the air for several years and the Austrian Laudamotion, which emerged from their former daughter Niki, gave back the AOC last year. Nevertheless, an Airbus A321 in the Air-Berlin-Laudamotion hybrid livery flew in the last few days and made stopovers in Hamburg and Luqa, among others.

It is the D-AEUA, which was previously used as D-ABCG at Air Berlin and then as OE-LCG at Niki and Laudamotion. There was a heated argument about this machine in 2018, because Niki Lauda was of the opinion that he would be entitled to the entire fleet in the course of the acquisition of the Niki assets. However, Lufthansa secured this through purchase or leasing. So a court had to stipulate that the crane had to "lease the machine to the buyer of the Niki assets" under normal market conditions.

It worked at first, but just a few months later, Ryanair and Lufthansa were publicly quarreling. The crane accused late payment and wanted all the machines back. Laudamotion and the parent company not only denied this, but even countered by saying that leasing rates that were too high were charged. The case went to court in London and a compromise was reached: Lauda was allowed to keep the aircraft leased from Lufthansa for the time being, but an early termination of the contracts for the following year was agreed. This Airbus A2019 was then handed over to the crane in June 321.

Future as a freighter, operated by Lufthansa Cityline

It was originally planned that all Ex-Laudamotion A321s will be used at Eurowings. The then OE-LCG never had this pleasure, but went to the storage and waited long before Corona was even more than the name of a beer, for better times. The two-jet aircraft will now get this from Lufthansa Cityline as a freighter.

On December 23, 2021, the now D-AEUA was awakened from its slumber in Lasham, England, and transferred to Hamburg. The Airbus A321, which continues to wear the Air Berlin Laudamotion hybrid livery, spent Christmas there and was flown to Muscat (Oman) on December 28, 2021 with a stopover in Luqa (Malta). There the medium-haul jet will be converted into a freighter.

The current passenger aircraft will be a full freighter after the conversion, which will also have a large loading hatch in the front area of ​​the fuselage. The machine will then be integrated into the Lufthansa Cargo network and will probably be used primarily within Europe. The operations are carried out by the sister company Lufthansa Citylinewhich has been criticized by trade unions, among others.

The Airbus A321s (A321P2F), which have been converted into cargo planes, offer a payload of 28 tons and a range of 3.500 kilometers. The conversion enables standardized freight pallets to be used on the main deck as well.