In the year 2019, a number of well-known airline brands have disappeared from the aviation landscape.
California Pacific
Shut down its operations on 16th January of 2019.
California Pacific Airlines was an American regional airline that was headquartered on the grounds of McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, California.
In December 2018, California Pacific Airlines announced that it was temporarily suspending its West Coast flight operations. The carrier’s EAS operations were not affected. In January 2019, the EAS operations were shut down as well, leaving South Dakota cities Pierre (the capital) and Watertown without any commercial air service. Employees were all put on indefinite furlough January 18; anonymous employees said that they were not paid for the last half of December or for January and that their health insurance premiums had not been paid for three months.
Germania
Shut down its operations on 5th February of 2019.
Germania is a privately owned German airline that serves scheduled flights to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Germania flies to 63 domestic and international destinations in 20 countries and owns the low-cost carrier Germania Express.
It blamed rising fuel prices and currency fluctuations as two factors.
In December 2018, it was reported that the airline had suffered heavy losses in recent years, especially during 2018 and that its owners were seeking potential buyers for the airline. Germania eventually ceased flight operations without previous notice in the night from 4 to 5 February 2019 and declared
bankruptcy for itself and its technical and service divisions.
Flybmi
Shut down its operations on 16th February of 2019.
Flybmi, styled as flybmi, legally British Midland Regional Limited and formerly branded as bmi Regional, was a British regional airline that operated scheduled passenger services across the UK and Europe.
UK regional airline flybmi has gone into administration, blaming “insurmountable” challenges caused by Brexit and dealing another blow to the UK’s aviation sector.
Insel Air
Shut down its operations on 16th February of 2019.
On 19 February, the CCAA decided to withdraw InselAir's certificate after previously announced strategic partner and investor InterCaribbean failed to finalise a plan to acquire 49% of the company.
Wow Air
Shut down its operations on 28th March of 2019.
WOW air was a low-cost carrier based in Reykjavík, Iceland. The airline flies to more than 30 destinations in Europe, North America and Asia.
Due to the market share of WOW air on the Icelandic air travel market, the airline's bankruptcy caused some disruption in the travel plans of multiple expected visitors. The loss of flights harmed Iceland's tourism and fishing-dependent economy and caused an increase in unemployment; the airline previously delivered over one-fourth of all visitors to Iceland, and its failure caused tourist visits to drop 16 percent overall and 20 percent from the United States, prompting a decline in a vacation home and hotel construction.
Aerolíneas de Antioquía
Shut down its operations on 29th March of 2019.
Aerolínea de Antioquia was a regional airline headquartered at the
Olaya Herrera Airport in
Medellín,
Colombia. At its peak, the airline operated scheduled domestic services from Medellín to over 20 destinations.
The airline ceased operating in Mar-2019 citing financial issues. It was founded in 1987.
Fly Jamaica Airways
Shut down its operations on 31st March of 2019.
Fly Jamaica Airways was a Jamaican airline headquartered in
Kingston,
Jamaica. On March 31, 2019, Fly Jamaica Airways suspended operations and made all employee positions redundant due to the lack of aircraft. The airline had been trying to recover after one of its aircraft crash-landed at Guyana's Cheddi Jagan International Airport in November 2018.
The airline operated scheduled services on a domestic network using Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft. It ceased its operations due to financial crises.
Al Naser Wings Airlines
Shut down its operations on 16th April of 2019.
Al Naser Wings Airlinesformerly known as Al-Naser Airlines was a small Iraqi airline based in
Karrada,
Baghdad,
Iraq. The airline operated scheduled domestic flights to places in the Middle East, mostly to
Damascus,
Syria.
[1] On February 24th, Al Naser Wings filed for bankruptcy
[2], and on 16 April 2019, the airline ceased all flight operations.
Jet Airways
Shut down its operations on 17th April of 2019.
Jet Airways was the second-largest airline by passengers till January this year in the domestic market and was also flying more passengers than national carrier Air India to overseas destinations from India.
The shutting down of the company affected their 20,000 employees and more than 60,000 people indirectly.
The company is reportedly in debt of default of Rs 8,000 crores.
Aigle Azur
Shut down its operations on 6th September of 2019.
Aigle Azur was a
French airline based and headquartered at
Paris Orly Airport. The airline operated scheduled flights from France to 21 destinations across Europe,
Africa, and the Middle East, with a fleet of Airbus A320 family and A330 aircraft. The airline filed for bankruptcy and was placed in receivership on 2 September 2019. Takeover bids were received, but none proved viable and the airline was liquidated by the court on 27 September 2019.
Thomas Cook Airline
Shut down its operations on 23rd September of 2019.
Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and MyTravel Group and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. Thomas Cook Group plc and all UK entities including Thomas Cook Airlines entered compulsory liquidation on 23 September 2019.
XL Airways
Shut down its operations on 23rd September of 2019.
XL Airways France, formerly Star Airlines, was a French airline with its head offices on the grounds of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. It operated scheduled flights mainly to long-haul destinations in Africa, the Middle East, the United States and the Caribbean as well as charter flights to medium-haul destinations in the Mediterranean, mostly out of Charles de Gaulle Airport. On 19 September 2019, XL Airways announced the suspension of all flights as of 23 September; ticket sales ceased immediately and the company was placed under legal receivership and subsequently wound up.
TAM
Shut down its operations on 23rd September of 2019.
TAM – Transporte Aéreo Militar (Military Air Transport) was an airline based in La Paz, Bolivia. It was owned by the Bolivian Air Force and was established to offer flights to rural communities where commercial airlines could not operate profitably. It also operated in competition with commercial airlines on many of Bolivia's trunk domestic routes. TAM has provided invaluable passenger and cargo services to remote destinations within the country since 1953.
Transporte Aéreo Militar was deemed by the Telecommunications and Transportation Regulation and Control Authority (ATT) not to have obtained sufficient flight certifications.
Peruvian Airlines
Shut down its operations on 2nd October of 2019.
Peruvian Airlines was a
Peruvian airline based in
Lima. Peruvian Airlines suspended all flights and closed offices due to a “lack of liquidity”. The airline says that the bank's action caused a liquidity shortage that affected all operations. It adds it could not recover from the situation and was forced to suspend all flights until further notice.
Far Eastern Air Transport
Shut down its operations on 13th December of 2019.
Established in 1957, it operated domestic services from Taipei and Kaohsiung to five regional cities and international services to Southeast Asia, South Korea and Palau. Its main base was
Taipei Songshan Airport. After a succession of financial crises in early 2008, the airline publicly announced its bankruptcy and stopped all flights with effect from 13 May 2008.
[3] The airline recommenced operations on 18 April 2011. The airline emerged from bankruptcy restructuring on 16 October 2015. The airline continued to face financial problems, and operations were halted from 13 December 2019.