BA sells German arm for €1

British Airways today sold its German arm for €1 – just over two months after low cost carrier easyJet scrapped plans to buy it.

Nuremburg-based aviation consultancy Intro Verwaltungsgesellschaft has agreed to pay just one euro for dba (formerly Deutsche BA).

Under the deal due to be completed on July 1, BA will pump up to £25m (€34m) into dba and underwrite its 16-strong fleet for one year in return for a quarter of the airline’s profits.

BA also stands to gain a quarter of the profits from disposal should Intro sell dba on before June 2006.

Roger Maynard, BA’s director of investments and joint ventures, said: “Dba does not fit with our core full service network strategy and the new owners will be able to give the business the commercial focus it needs.

“The people in dba have done a great job in carving an important niche in the German domestic market with an operational performance second to none. I wish them well.”

EasyJet secured an option to buy the airline last year but announced in March that it was shelving plans to acquire it because of conditions in the German aviation market and a failure to agree employment terms with its 800 staff.

Mr Maynard said the deal was “a sensible one in the current climate”.

He added: “It ends our exposure to German losses yet gives us the benefit of a share in any profits that the company makes in the next three years.”

The airline, which operates around 130 flights a day both within Germany and outside, will see its service continue as normal.