We affirmed our 'AAA' unsolicited long-term sovereign credit rating on the Federal Republic of Germany on Jan. 13, 2012. We equalize our long-term credit rating on German air traffic controller 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 in the event of financial distress. Consequently, we are affirming our 'AAA' long-term issuer credit rating on German DFS and removing it from CreditWatch, where it was placed with negative implications on Dec. 7, 2011. We are also affirming our 'A-1+' short-term rating on DFS. The stable outlook reflects that on the Federal
