Bust of Germania has bitter consequences

From Germania-founder, Hinrich Bischoff, there are, among other things, the following story. One day, he marched into the office of the then Lufthansa chief Jürgen Weber. He was wearing one of his slightly weathered suits, for which he was in the industry, notorious, and held a plastic bag in Hand. If they could not agree on a lease for his aircraft, then he see a forced intra-German flights on their own account, offer, so Bischoff. He pulled out a model airplane in Germania livery out of the bag, to illustrate his threat.

in 1987, was the. Bischoff had taken over the small company in the previous year and had ordered a lot of new aircraft for which he sought employment. But actually, he wanted to fly just a few even, the rest of the rent to be profitable. 32 years later, Germania is at the end. The airline filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday after it was not able to do on the Quick, around 15 million euros to raise, which would have been necessary to the operation of the aircraft.

The fleet of currently 31 aircraft is on the ground, in the night of Tuesday, the last two machines were flying back from the Canary Islands to Nuremberg and Münster/Osnabrück. Several Thousand passengers are affected. All of the major tour operators have to organise a Quick replacement for the many Germania-seats, you are responsible to bring your customers in the target areas.

passengers will be able to take care of claims

anyone Who has booked with Germania directly, you can sign up in the bankruptcy proceedings as a creditor his claims, but in the meantime, even with new flights. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus has Broke all of a sudden a Problem: Germania has so far operated two A319 on behalf of the group, including between the two main sites in Hamburg and Toulouse.

Germania had specialized in Charter flights on behalf of tour operators as well as line services in niche markets. Most recently, the Airline flew 31 aircraft, 26 of which were leased. A few more are not in Bulgaria, in use, the local subsidiary of the insolvency petition.

survival skill "is difficult

estimate", the Swiss company Germania flight AG, which belongs only to 40 percent of the German companies and largely independently acting is concerned. "We will continue to operate as usual," wrote the company on Tuesday morning in a press release. The current winter flight schedule as well as the summer flight plan in 2019 would receive, as planned, and the planning for the Winter of 2019/20 over already.

From Zurich, the Airline serves more than 20 destinations, mainly in the Mediterranean. The Zurich airport confirmed that all Germania flights Tuesday morning were carried out according to plan.

the Extent justified by the slogans of the Swiss Germania. "It is difficult to assess difficult for us, whether the Swiss company to survive on its own two feet is capable of," said Walter Kunz, managing Director of the Swiss travel Association. For reasons of Competitive the industry, but I have a big interest in the Survival of Germania. The Association connected travel agents will be advised in such situations, your customer transparent about the corresponding risks.

No government help

For the German airline industry is Broke, another shocking event. Especially bitter is the end for the airports of Bremen, Münster/Osnabrück, Dresden and Erfurt, to which Germania had a particularly high proportion of the total traffic. Also, Nuremberg, Düsseldorf, and the two Berlin airports, Tegel and Schönefeld are affected.

Federal Minister for economic Affairs, Peter Altmaier (CDU) is so far no reason to save Germania from the government. Success and failure are part of the market economy, he said in Berlin on Tuesday. The state also did not attempt to preserve Air Berlin before the insolvency, but only to be helped to the stranded passengers to come back. In the case of Germania, a lot less people were affected. In addition, the vast majority could be helped well by the organizers and travel agencies.

the owner Karsten Balke is disputed within the industry, and internally he is considered to some as resistant to advice.

the Bankruptcy of The last medium-sized airline in Germany, it was clear for months. At the beginning of the year, managing Directors and owners Karsten Balke confirmed the financial problems, and was in between light sound the all-clear, because there had been a "major commitment" to a new lender. Who should have been the donor, not betrayed Balke. The former Air Berlin chief Joachim Hunold will have with a few companions tried to take over Germania. However, if the action should ever have been seriously, then you came much too late. That the insolvency of a surprised hardly anyone more, says a lot about how far Germania has to their roots.

the founder of Hinrich Bischoff had already died in 2005 at the age of 69 years. At the time Germania had 44 aircraft, most of them were rented out to good conditions to other airlines. Bischoff had decreed that Hunold, then Air-Berlin-Chef, to take supervision of the Airline and Air Berlin should, but his children decided to independently continue. After a dispute among the heirs Balke 2015 took over the majority of Germania. In 2016, he ordered 25 Airbus A320neo, which should be delivered from 2020.

As of 2017, of all things, Air Berlin became insolvent, and at the end of October the operation of the aircraft completely stopped, also saw Balke his Chance. Germania has expanded greatly, 2018, the Airline offered 40 percent more capacity than in the previous year, detailed business figures for the year are not yet known. In the industry and was regarded as puzzles, as the small airline company wanted to Finance growth, especially since a lot of larger providers, such as Eurowings, Ryanair, Easyjet and Condor tried the Same, with corresponding consequences for prices. All of the paid plan, but unlike the big competitors couldn't afford to Germania the Expansion.

Balke is disputed within the industry, and internally he is considered to some as resistant to advice. He had to start an Airline in the Gambia (Gambia Bird), after heavy losses, the experiment was stopped after only a few months. He founded subsidiaries in Switzerland and Bulgaria. The temporary sharp rise in prices for kerosene, as well as the Chaos-the summer of 2018, resulting in high additional costs for aircraft and compensation payments, brought the house of cards finally collapse.

Bischoff's threat with the model in the plastic bag at the time, incidentally is not missed their effect. Weber signed. Long it is. (Tages-Anzeiger)

Created: 05.02.2019, 14:22 PM