That was the plan in the first place. 🙂

I have just talked with an Air Berlin employee about that because I heard contradictory informations about whether the Airbusses are meant to be a 737 replacement or a supplement to the existing 737-700/-800 fleet. He said the plan is first to replace the remaining 737-400s and later go to an all Airbus fleet with some time of a combined/mixed fleet of 737-800s and A32Xs.
Which -if true- is really sad because Air Berlin is for me a “Boeing” and especially 737 airline. I have nothing against the A320 I love them both but some airlines are for me classic Boeing operators (and still some are classic McDonnel Douglas operators for me like KLM,SAS, Swissair and AUA) and some are more an Airbus airlines for me.

For more confusion at the Air Berlin rumor mill, I was also told that Air Berlin wants to get rid of the Fokkers 100 as soon as possible a likely replacement is either the 737-600 or A318/A319.