profits or proceeds from a sale until June 2006. It was rebranded as dba. In March 2005 dba announced its intention to acquire rival airline Germania Express (gexx) which would create Germany's third largest airline after Lufthansa and Air Berlin. The gexx brand was phased out on the former airline's services, along with its Fokker 100 aircraft which dba has assumed the lease of. dba submitted a binding bid for ailing Greek national airline Olympic Airlines in April 2005, but later withdrew that bid. In the fiscal year ending 31 March 2005, dba announced its first profit since creation in 1992, of 'between €1m and €2m on sales of around €265m. 3 million passengers flew on dba aircraft in the year ending March 2005. The airline was owned by Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft (80%) and Martin Gauss and Peter Wojahn (20%), and had 660 employees (at January 2005). On 17 February 2006, dba announced the purchase of 60% of LTU. Hans-Rudolf Wöhrl, the majority owner of dba, planned to link the operations of LTU and dba, with dba flying inside Germany and LTU serving international destinations. It would allow LTU to increase its longhaul services by providing feeder services to Munich and Düsseldorf. LTU managing director Jürgen Marbach took a 24% stake in the carrier. Sale to Air Berlin In February 2006 Lutz Helmig acquired a 25.1% stake in the airline through the Aton company. On August 17, 2006 it was announced that Air Berlin had acquired 100% of the shares in dba. The two airlines would operate under their current identities, with dba continuing to operate as an independent company under the Air Berlin umbrella, but in future would be marketed as Air Berlin ("powered by dba"). It had 700 employees (at March 2007). The winter 2006 flight schedules were harmonised and a joint schedule will be in place for the summer 2007 season. On 6 September 2006, the German Federal Cartel Office cleared the acquisition of 100% of the shares of dba by Air Berlin without restrictions to allow finalisation of the takeover. On 30 November 2008 the parent company Air Berlin dissolved the company dba and fully integrated its planes into the Air Berlin fleet. Fleet When branded as Deutsche BA, the airline operated the following aircraft types in a livery similar to British Airways: Boeing 737-300 Boeing 737-400 Dornier 228 Fokker 100 Saab 2000 Saab 340A References External