Air Berlin Plc filed for insolvency after leading shareholder Etihad Airways PJSC withdrew its financial support, marking the second failure of a major European airline in four months after the Persian Gulf carrier pulled the plug on funding Italy’s Alitalia SpA in May, Bloomberg News reported today. While Air Berlin said in a statement yesterday that it will continue flying with the help of government loans, the filing puts thousands of German jobs at risk. Deutsche Lufthansa AG said that it may buy parts of its main national rival. Air Berlin has racked up more than 2.7 billion euros ($3.2 billion) of losses in a little over six years and has net debt of 1.2 billion euros. Etihad bought a 29 percent stake in 2012 as part of a plan to feed more passengers through its Abu Dhabi hub by building a network of minority investments, a strategy that it’s now unraveling after itself suffering losses of $1.87 billion in 2016.
