Niki (Austria) (Vienna) has retired its last A320-200 OE-LEH (msn 4594) from service on April 26. The Austrian leisure subsidiary of Air Berlin (1991) (Berlin Tegel) now operates a fleet consisting exclusively of A321-200s with fourteen aircraft currently in its fleet.
As part of a plan to sell its shareholding in Niki to Air Berlin's largest minority shareholder Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International) for a proposed joint venture between Etihad and tour operator TUI, Niki's fleet of A320-200s has been exchanged with A321-200s sourced from Air Berlin. While the actual transactions with Etihad and TUI are still pending regulatory approval, the fleet transactions are getting close to completion with Air Berlin now just operating two remaining A321-200s.
Niki currently operates its A321s from bases at Düsseldorf, Hamburg Helmut Schmidt, Munich and Vienna and also wet-leases additional A321 aircraft from Belair Airlines (Zurich) as well as B737-700s and B737-800s from TUI fly (Germany) (X3, Hannover) for the remainder of its operations.
