Airlines Germania files for insolvency, terminates flight operations

The Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH, Germania Flugdienste GmbH and maintenance subsidiary Germania Technik Brandenburg GmbH all had to file for insolvency on Monday, February 4th, 2019. The carrier said in a statement, that all flight operations have been terminated on the night from February 4th to February 5th.

ST3711 was the last Germania flight. D-ASTO, an Airbus A319-115, took off from Fuerteventura at 19:54 local time and landed at Nürnberg in Germany at 01:09 in the night. This landing marks the end of 31 years of flying for the carrier.

Karsten Balke, CEO Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH, said: “Unfortunately, we were ultimately unable to bring our financing efforts to cover a short-term liquidity need to a positive conclusion. We very much regret that consequently; our only option was to file for insolvency. It is, of course, the impact that this step will have on our employees that we regret the most. All of them as a team always did their best to secure reliable and stable flight operations – even in the stressful weeks behind us. I would like to thank all of them from the bottom of my heart. I apologise to our passengers who now cannot take their Germania flight as planned.”

Over the past weeks, the carrier worked hard to acquire short-term investments. But in the end, the carrier was not able to cover its costs and therefore had to file for insolvency at Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg.

Subsidiary airlines Germania Flug AG, which is based and headquartered in Switzerland, and Bulgarian Eagle are not affected by the carrier´s bankruptcy, stated Germania.

Major reasons for Germania´s downfall were massive increases in fuel prices last summer, as well as the simultaneous weakening of the euro against the US dollar. Germania also had problems with adding more aircraft to its fleet, while a high number of maintenance events occurred. These burdens led to Germania having to file for insolvency.

Initially, the carrier was founded back in 1978 and was headquartered in Berlin, Germany. The airline originally focused on charter operations. Over the past couple years, however, Germania moved towards becoming a scheduled carrier.

After Air Berlin´s bankruptcy in 2017, Germania hoped to take over slots and routes. The airline even signed a firm order for 25 Airbus A320neos at the Farnborough International Air Show in July 2016.