Germania (airline)

Not to be confused with Germania Flug.
Germania
IATA ICAO Callsign
ST GMI GERMANIA
Founded 1978
Operating bases Berlin Schönefeld Airport
Focus cities
Fleet size 22
Destinations 42
Headquarters Berlin, Germany
Key people Karsten Balke, CEO
Website flygermania.de

Germania, legally Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH, is a privately owned German airline with its headquarters in Berlin.[1] Germania operates scheduled and charter flights to destinations in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from several German bases. It carried 2.5 million passengers in 2009 and had around 850 employees as of summer 2014.[2]

History

Early years

Germania Boeing 737-300 in 1996

The airline was founded in April 1978 as Special Air Transport or SAT for short in Cologne and started operations on 5 September 1978 with a Fokker F-27. In November 1978, a Sud Aviation Caravelle was purchased from LTU, which was replaced by two used Boeing 727-100 from Hapag-Lloyd Flug (now TUIfly). Germania Express has adopted the IATA code "ST" which was previously used by Yanda Airlines.

In spring 1986, the company was re-organised and its name was changed to Germania on 1 June 1986.[3] For many years, Germania's main area of doing business were charter services for TUI, Condor and Neckermann Reisen – an area in which Germania earned a reputation for offering the lowest prices. In 1992 the registered office was relocated to Tegel. In the same year Germania won the bid for flight services between the old and new capital of Germany (Bonn and Berlin) on behalf of the German government, establishing a short-lived Beamten-Shuttle (German for “shuttle for civil servants”).

In 1998, the airline pioneered the use of aircraft for advertising in Germany (advertisers included Siemens and various tour operators). In the same year, Germania began to lease more and more planes to other airlines such as Hapag-Lloyd Express, Maersk and Delta.

Development since the 2000s

The former logo used until 2009

In June 2003, Germania started to offer tickets directly to passengers under the brand Germania Express (often shortened to gexx). Following a purchase of a 64% stake in dba (now part of Air Berlin) on 28 March 2005, Germania wet-leased 12 Fokker 100 aircraft to dba. At the same time, dba took over Germania Express's 15 established low-cost routes and thus absorbed Germania's gexx brand. Germania on the other hand, with all aircraft having been leased to other airlines, no longer offered routes directly to passengers. While the partial merger between Germania and dba was already reversed in the summer of 2005, the cooperation of Germania and dba was extended to 14 Fokker 100 aircraft. Air Berlin chief, Joachim Hunold, was tasked by Germania owner, Hinrich Bischoff, to take charge of the future of the company shortly before Bischoff's death on 11 November 2005. However, an agreement between Bischoff and Hunold was not reached in the end as Bischoff's heirs refused to accept.

Germania relaunched scheduled flights under its own brand name out of Berlin and Düsseldorf beginning with the 2008 summer schedule.

The foundations were laid for the first maintenance hangar at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on 21 March 2011. Germania plans to use the hangar together with Air Berlin once the airport becomes operational.[4]

On 3 March 2014, Germania had its traffic rights for flights to Iraq revoked after an intervention by Iraqi Airways.[5] On 12 March 2014, Germania was allowed to resume all operations to Iraq with the first flight resuming on the 17 March 2014.

In spring 2015, Germania announced to phase out all of their recently refurbished Boeing 737-700s by 2020 to become an all-Airbus operator.[6]

In September 2016, Germania announced to cease all operations at Kassel Airport where it was the only scheduled carrier.[7]

Corporate affairs

Germania's head office in Berlin

Ownership

Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH is a private company that had been founded and run for many years by Hinrich Bischoff, who died on 11 November 2005. His wife Ingrid Bischoff was the main shareholder, but she sold it. Germania has its headquarters at Riedemannweg 58, Berlin, Germany.[8][9]

Because it is a private company, annual reports for Germania are not published. In the absence of these, information that is available is shown below:

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Turnover (€m) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Profit (€m) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Number of employees 600 600 600 600 n/a n/a
Number of passengers (m) 2.5 2.2 n/a 1.0 n/a n/a
Passenger load factor (%) n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Number of aircraft (at year end) 15 17 n/a 15 n/a n/a
Notes/sources [13][14] [15][16] [17]

Destinations

Main article: Germania destinations

Germania offers a wide range of some year-round and mainly seasonal leisure and some metropolitan routes from several German airports. From its bases, scheduled flights to Turkey, Kosovo, Israel and Lebanon are also offered, servicing minorities living in Germany and Austria.

Fleet

Current fleet

Germania Airbus A319-100

As of November 2016, the Germania fleet (excluding the Swiss subsidiary Germania Flug) consists of the following aircraft:[18]

Germania fleet
Aircraft In Service Orders Passengers[19] Notes
Y Total
Airbus A319-100 8 — 150 150
Airbus A320neo — 25 180 180 to be delivered from 2020[20]
Airbus A321-200 4 — 215 215
Boeing 737-700 10 — 148 148 to be retired by 2020[6]
Total 22 25

Historic fleet

A now retired Germania Fokker 100

Over the years, Germania has operated the following aircraft types:[21]

Aircraft Introduced Retired
Airbus A319-100 2011
Airbus A321-200 2013
Boeing 737-300 1987 2011
Boeing 737-700 1998
Fokker 100 2003 2008

References

  1. ↑ "Contact." Germania Airline. Retrieved on October 12, 2009.
  2. ↑ Germania (7 July 2015). "Germania Airline". Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. p. 86.
  4. ↑ "airberlin press – Press releases". Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "Germania stripped of Iraqi traffic rights on Iraqi Airways' request". ch-aviation. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Einheitsflotte: Germania wechselt ganz zu Airbus - aeroTELEGRAPH". aeroTELEGRAPH. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  7. ↑ aero.de - "Kassel Airport loses Germania" (German) 22 September 2016
  8. ↑ Germania express Company History
  9. ↑ "Germania (airline)". Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  10. ↑ "INTRO Aviation - Home". Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  11. ↑ http://www.gambiabird.com/mediapool/gambiabird.com/docs/press/20141230_GBQ_Press_Release_Suspension_of_commercial_flight_operations.pdf
  12. ↑ "HolidayJet". Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  13. ↑ "Germania press release:Contract signed for Airbus order 26 July 2010". Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  14. ↑ "About Germania - The Company". Germania.
  15. ↑ "A J Walter Aviation press release". Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  16. ↑ "Germania Selects Eaton to Provide Hydraulic Pumps". Eaton. 29 March 2011.
  17. ↑ "GuestLogix press release". GuestLogix. 22 March 2013.
  18. ↑ "Germania Fleet Details and History". planespotters.net. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  19. ↑ "flygermania.de - aircraft". Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  20. ↑ "Germania Group invests in the future with order of Airbus A320neo. Extensive fleet renewal starts 2020.". Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  21. ↑ "Germania Fleet - Airfleets aviation". Retrieved 10 July 2015.

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