Niki was the second airline Niki Lauda founded after leaving Lauda Air. A low-cost carrier based in Vienna, it grew closely intertwined with Air Berlin within a few years, until both carriers slid into insolvency together in 2017.
Photo: Pedro Aragão · License: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source: Wikimedia Commons
Founding and Growth as a Low-Cost Carrier
Niki began flying on 28 November 2003. Niki Lauda founded the airline after acquiring certain assets of Aero Lloyd Austria, and positioned it from the start as a low-cost carrier based in Vienna. As early as 9 January 2004, a cooperation agreement with Germany’s Air Berlin was announced, which developed into an ever closer partnership over the following years.
Full Integration Into the Air Berlin Group
In November 2011, Niki fully merged its operations with Air Berlin, sharing flight operations, booking systems and aircraft. On 20 March 2012, Niki joined the Oneworld alliance as an Air Berlin subsidiary, and from late 2012 its aircraft were repainted in Air Berlin’s livery. Air Berlin held a 49 percent stake; on 5 December 2016, a sale of that stake to Air Berlin’s major shareholder, Etihad Airways, was announced but never went through. In 2016, Niki still served 34 destinations, but in 2017 its network was drastically cut to 20 destinations with 56 weekly flights from Austria: the Vienna–Abu Dhabi route ended by March 2017, all flights from Linz were discontinued in January 2017, and about 12 city routes from Vienna were dropped by 30 January 2017.
Insolvency in Air Berlin’s Wake
Air Berlin filed for insolvency on 17 August 2017. On 12 October 2017, Lufthansa agreed to buy parts of the Air Berlin group, including Niki, but withdrew on 13 December 2017 after signs grew that the European Commission would not approve the deal. Niki then filed for insolvency itself and halted all flight operations on 14 December 2017, affecting around 1,000 jobs. In the bidding process for its assets, it was ultimately not IAG, which had offered 36.5 million euros on 29 December 2017 for large parts of Niki including 15 Airbus A321s and traffic rights from Düsseldorf, Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Palma de Mallorca, but Niki Lauda’s own company LaudaMotion that prevailed, winning the creditors’ committee’s approval on 23 January 2018.
Further reading: LaudaMotion and Lauda · Austrian Aviation History
Sources (Selection)
- Wikipedia: Niki (airline)
- vienna.at: Airline Niki is sold to founder Niki Lauda (German)
- aerointernational.de: Lauda launches insolvent airline Niki under a new name (German)
Part of the Austrian Aviation History section. An independent, private history project with no connection to Austrian Airlines AG or the Lufthansa Group.