Berlin-based low-cost carrier Germania has filed for insolvency, bringing all flights to an end overnight.
The airline flew to destinations across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It carried more than four million passengers a year.
Germania blamed the situation on increases in fuel prices and the weakening of the euro against the US dollar, as well as “considerable delays” in bringing new aircraft into the fleet and an “unusually high number of maintenance events”.
CEO Karsten Balke 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.”
Germania is the latest in a series of blows to the low-cost airline industry, with Primera Air filing for bankruptcy last October and Cobalt suspending flights just two weeks later.
Irish carrier Ryanair has reported its first quarterly loss since 2014, while Flybe and Iceland-based Wow Air are both tied up in potential buy-outs. Norwegian announced last week it is seeking to raise nearly £270 million through a rights issue after it rejected take-over bids from British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG).