The meaning of a thing or a process points to the sense of a linguistic expression. In plain everyday speech, the meaning of broke (the German word "Pleite") refers to the insolvency of a company, but it can also refer to individual people. You can only find out more once you know exactly which of these two the meaning of broke applies to.
Being broke means that insolvency has been reached. The word also brings along various set phrases such as "to go bust," "to go broke" and "to be broke" (in German: „Pleite machen“, „pleite gehen“ and „pleite sein“). These expressions for going broke point to the fact of a failure. In the past, this gave rise to the "Pleitegeier" (literally "bankruptcy vulture"), a proverbial term for a bankruptcy. The "Pleitegeier" is a symbol of bankruptcy, but literally means "one who goes broke" and so has nothing to do with the vultures of the animal kingdom. That also gave rise to the mockery in the form of the remark that someone is a "Pleitier" (a "bankrupt"), for a businessman who has gone into insolvency.

What Does Going Broke Mean for an Airline?

If, for example, an airline files for insolvency, that is, goes bankrupt, alarm bells start ringing for everyone affected, meaning travelers and also the airline's business partners. Travelers or vacationers who have planned a trip or even a vacation with this airline are left with anxious questions when the bankruptcy is announced. For example: Is there perhaps still a way out of the crisis, so that my vacation can still be saved? Will an investor perhaps step forward and take over the airline along with its obligations to travelers? Will flight operations be shut down and all flights canceled?
These anxious questions are entirely justified, as they represent the worry of those affected and can come with financial losses for those who have already paid for a future service from the company.

Meaning of broke

The New Meaning of Going Broke

Right now, brought on by the COVID crisis, we face a serious situation in which companies go bankrupt through no fault of their own. That is a new meaning of going broke, one that has never existed in our society before. It's well known that a bankruptcy arises from insolvency. That's the case here, too. But what's new about all of this is that the companies can do absolutely nothing about it, because any contact was banned. In bankruptcies before this pandemic, companies threatened by bankruptcy still had the option of doing something about it. But today nothing works anymore: once government support is used up and no new support follows, that's it. Over. Broke. That is the new meaning of going broke, and only a restart of the economy can help. But even when the economy restarts, some companies won't manage to avert bankruptcy. The losses are too great.