The airline Air Berlin, which in 2008 made a number of statements against the Catalan language, has declared insolvency. "The partition of Spain into regional nationalisms is in fact a return to medieval micro-states. I had always thought that we lived in a Europe without borders." Those were the words of Air Berlin's director general, Joachim Hunold, in an editorial in Air Berlin Magazine.
This article was the answer from the president of the company to a letter that the director general of Linguistic Policy for the Balearic Islands had sent asking the German airline to use Catalan in communications with its customers. Catalan is, along with Spanish, an official language of the islands.
"Do I have to give Catalan classes by decree to my workers?" asked Hunold in the editorial, "do they not speak Spanish any more?" The text was not at all popular and triggered a boycott of the company and a large-scale campaign to send them letters of complaint.
Air Berlin is the second-largest airline in Germany and has declared itself insolvent after it stopped receiving financial support from its majority stockholder, Etihad Airways. The company has requested the lower court in Berlin to open a process of insolvency to continue with its restructuring.