Germania airline says filed for bankruptcy, cancels all flights

Berlin yesterday ruled out any state aid for airline Germania, after the firm declared bankruptcy and cancelled all flights with immediate effect. “This is a case for the market economy,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said, adding that the government had “no concrete plan” to support Germania. “If the state gets involved by helping some companies and not others, it would have a considerable cost to the economy,” he added.

The airline with 37 aircraft had flown mainly Mediterranean, North African and Middle Eastern holiday routes for German sun-seekers on package trips, and said it transported over four million passengers a year. “Unfortunately, we ultimately failed to successfully complete our financing efforts to meet short-term liquidity needs,” said managing director Karsten Balke in a statement. “We very much regret that, as a consequence, we had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.”

The company blamed “unforeseen developments” for its cash shortage such as “steep kerosene price increases over the summer of last year with a simultaneous fall of the euro against the US dollar” as well as a high number of technical services required by its fleet of aircraft.