Airberlin: another restructuring from another CEO after another loss in 2014

According to airberlin's preliminary results, it narrowed its underlying operating loss (before restructuring and one-off costs) for 2014. It made progress with cost restructuring, but missed its planned turnaround because unit revenues were weak. After restructuring and one-offs, its net loss will be worse than in 2013.

With only one year of (very small) net profit since 2007, it seems that loss-making can be a hard habit to break. More recent data show an improving unit revenue trend and airberlin expects 2015 to be much better than last year.

Nevertheless, this cannot hide the enormity of the challenge facing new CEO Stefan Pichler (appointed 2-Feb-2015) in restoring airberlin to profit. The fourth CEO in as many years has launched another redesign of the company's business model, aiming for a positive result in 2016.