We placed our 'AAA' unsolicited long-term sovereign credit rating on the Federal Republic of Germany on CreditWatch with negative implications on Dec. 5, 2011. We equalize our long-term credit rating on DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) with that on the Federal Republic of Germany to reflect our opinion that there is an "almost certain" likelihood that DFS would receive timely and sufficient extraordinary support from the German government. Consequently, we are placing our 'AAA' long-term issuer credit rating on German air traffic controller DFS on CreditWatch negative. We are also affirming our 'A-1+' short-term rating on DFS. FRANKFURT (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 7, 2011--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today placed its 'AAA' long-term issuer credit rating on German air traffic
