Air Berlin bids to finalise asset carve-up

Insolvent German airline Air Berlin hopes to conclude talks with Lufthansa and EasyJet on a carve-up of its assets by the middle of next month as it races to secure jobs and keep flying.

Air Berlin, which has around 8,000 employees, filed for insolvency in August after major shareholder Etihad said it would stop providing funding.

The German government stepped in with a €150m loan, due to last until the end of October, to prevent the airline being grounded so that talks could be held on selling its assets.