After the Second World War, only aircraft from the Allied powers were allowed to land in Berlin. For this reason, the "Air Berlin Inc." was founded in 1978 in Oregon, USA, by former PanAm captain Kim Lundgren from Portland.
Air Berlin commenced its services on 28th April 1979 with a leased Boeing 707 on a flight from Berlin to Palma de Mallorca, and thereafter with flights to the USA. The "Kerosine guzzler" was soon replaced by two smaller Boeing 737 machines. With the end of the status of occupation, the Allies forfeited their privileges in the German capital and Lundgren had to seek German majority shareholders.
In former LTU manager Joachim Hunold he found a partner who launched the German "Air Berlin GmbH & Co. Luftverkehrs KG" on 16th April 1991, and found further shareholders for the company: Werner Huehn, Hans-Joachim Knieps as well as the Severin brothers and Rudolf Schulte. Kim Lundgren today still holds 26 percent of the company shares.

Information obtained from Air Berlin. For more information, please contact the airline or surf to their website at the Homepage address below.