The struggling German airline was aiming to reduce its payroll by 1,000 jobs and downsizing its fleet to about 70 airplanes by the end of 2016.

The struggling German airline was aiming to reduce its payroll by 1,000 jobs and downsizing its fleet to about 70 airplanes by the end of 2016. The Munich-based newspaper cited industry sources as saying, the plan was part of efforts by the carrier's biggest shareholder - Gulf airline Etihad Airways - to dispose of overcapacity at Air Berlin. For that Etihad was in talks with Germany's largest airline Lufthansa and travel company TUI aimed at taking over parts of Air Berlin. The talks centered on selling 17 planes owned by Air Berlin's Austrian subsidiary Niki to TUIfly, the newspaper reported. In addition, Lufthansa was allegedly interested in renting 40 Air Berlin planes and crew in what's referred to as a "wet lease." This means the airline would get fixed-rate payments while Lufthansa would assume the economic risk of operating the flights. Deutsche Welle