Germania Fluggesellschaft mbH, trading as Germania (), was a privately owned German airline with its headquarters in Berlin. It began by focusing on charter operations, then moved towards becoming a scheduled carrier, although some charter flights were still flown under the brand. The change in strategy led to growth over its last few years, and Germania operated 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. It declared bankruptcy on 4 February 2019 and ceased operations on 5 February 2019. History Early years 1978-1999 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 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, the traditional Latin name of Germany, on 1 June 1986. 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. Scheduled services On 12 November 2001, Germania launched scheduled services between Berlin Tegel and Frankfurt. Germania initially offered a one-way ticket at EUR 99.00. Incumbent operator Lufthansa reacted immediately by lowering its prices and effectively matching the low Germania fares. Previously, Lufthansa sold tickets between these two cities for EUR 485.00 return. Lufthansa was sued for its anticompetitive practice and was forced to raise its fare to at least EUR 30.50 one-way over the Germania fare. By early summer 2002, it became public that