Germania Cancels All Flights, Applies For Bankruptcy

Leisure airline Germania has filed for insolvency and cancelled all flights after failing to cover a short-term liquidity crunch.

The Berlin-based airline collapsed and filed for bankruptcy on Monday, with all flights ceasing overnight into Tuesday. The carrier blamed fuel price increases and the weakening of the euro against the US dollar, plus delays in phasing aircraft into its fleet and maintenance issues for its downfall.

“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,” the airline’s chief executive Karsten Balke said.

The insolvency filing covers the Germania airline and its maintenance arm Germania Technik Brandenburg, but its Swiss carrier Germania Flug and Bulgarian Eagle are not affected and will continue to operate.

Germania Flug board member Urs Pelizzoni said “Our flight operations are continuing as normal. Our current winter flight schedule, this year's summer schedule and also our plans for the 2019/20 winter season are unaffected by the insolvency announced in Berlin.”

The German airline said passengers who booked their Germania flight as part of a package holiday can contact their tour operator to organise alternative travel. Passengers who booked directly with Germania are not so lucky though as they have no entitlement to alternative arrangements.

Germania CEO Balke apologised for the impact of the insolvency, both to passengers who have been stranded or lost their future bookings, and to airline staff who “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.”

There were reports last month that Germania had secured commitments for EUR€15 million (USD$17.1 million) in financial backing, but that fell through leaving the company no alternative but to file for bankruptcy.

Germania operated a fleet of 30, mainly Airbus, aircraft to destinations in Europe and the Middle East.