The 23 airlines that have collapsed since Covid-19

While air travel has tentatively resumed, for some airlines it was too late

23 airlines have ceased to exist due to Covid-19, including Virgin Australia
23 airlines have ceased to exist due to Covid-19, including Virgin Australia Credit: Getty

Air travel may have resumed in some corners of the planet, although for some airlines it was too late.

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought a tumultuous period for aviation, with 23 airlines collapsing following the international travel restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the disease.

In the UK, the FCO advised against travel in mid-March and only lifted this restriction, for a limited number of countries, in late June.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) last month predicted global losses could reach billions of dollars, as global air traffic remains at only around one third of pre-pandemic levels.

And for some, the financial burden of the pandemic has been too great. The biggest losses have included Flybe, a UK domestic airline that operated since 1979, and Virgin Australia, which came into existence 20 years ago. Many of the airlines, of course, had pre-existing struggles.

Some other big players are showing signs of struggle. Emirates Airlines has said it will cut 30 per cent of staff as a result of the pandemic, with 1,600 pilots sacked since May. Thousands of British Airways staff are at risk of redundancy.

The American airline industry is “likely” to lose a carrier to this pandemic, according to Boeing president and chief executive David Calhoun.

Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in April
Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in April

Here we take a look at all 23 airlines or subsidiary airlines that have declared bankrupcy or gone into administration since the emergence of Covid-19.

The airlines that have collapsed since the pandemic

Air Deccan
Country: India
Founded: 2017
Collapsed: April 5 2020

Air Georgian
Country: Canada
Founded: 1994
Collapsed: May 29 2020

Air Italy
Country: Italy
Founded: 2018
Collapsed: April 16 2020

AtlasGlobal
Country: Turkey
Founded: 2001
Collapsed: February 12 2020

Avianca
Country: Colombia
Founded: 1919
Collapsed: Filed for bankruptcy May 10 2020

Braathens Regional Airlines
Country: Sweden
Founded: 2016
Collapsed: April 6 2020

Compass Airlines
Country: USA
Founded: 2007
Collapsed: April 5 2020

Ernest Airlines
Country: Italy
Founded: 2015
Collapsed: April 5 2020

Flybe
Country: UK
Founded: 1979
Collapsed: March 5 2020

LATAM Argentina
Country: Argentina
Founded: 2005
Collapased: June 17 2020

Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT)
Country: Antigua
Founded: 1956
Collapsed: June 30 2020

LEVEL Europe
Country: Austria
Founded: 2017
Collapsed: June 18 2020

Miami Air International
Country: USA
Founded: 1990
Collapsed: May 8 2020

NokScoot
Country: Thailand
Founded: 2014
Collapsed: June 26 2020

One Airlines
Country: Chile
Founded: 2013
Collapsed: June 24 2020

RavnAir
Country: USA
Founded: 2013
Collapsed: June 24 2020

South Africa Airways
Country: South Africa
Founded: 1934
Collapsed: Entered liquidation May 2020

SunExpress Deutschland
Country: Germany
Founded: 2011
Collapsed: June 26 2020

TAME EP
Country: Ecuador
Founded: 1962
Collapsed: May 19 2020

Tigerair Australia
Country: Australia
Founded: 2007
Collapsed: March 25 2020

Trans States Airlines
Country: USA
Founded: 1982
Collapsed: April 1 2020

Virgin Australia
Country: Australia
Founded: 2000
Collapsed: Voluntary administration on April 21 2020

Flybe, Europe's biggest regional carrier, collapsed in March
Flybe, Europe's biggest regional carrier, collapsed in March Credit: Getty

The big failures in recent years

Oliver Smith takes a look at the biggest airline collapses in recent years.

Flybe

2020

After months of uncertainty, Flybe, Europe’s biggest regional carrier, collapsed in early March. It cited a drop in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak, but in truth it had been on the brink for some time; as recently as January the Government provided a £100m loan to keep it in the sky.

The loss of Flybe was a big blow for several regional airports – especially Birmingham, Exeter, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton and Belfast, as well as Guernsey and Jersey, which were the airline’s original bases. It had a fleet of 63 aircraft serving 56 destinations before its failure, and flew to European cities including Biarritz, Bordeaux, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Amsterdam and Geneva.

It was the third airline to go under in 2020, following the collapse of Air Italy and Atlas Global Airlines, and at least the 69th to fail since 2015. Here we look back on other notable travel failures in modern history.

Thomas Cook

2019

Thomas Cook ceased trading on September 23, 2019, leaving an estimated 150,000 customers stuck overseas. Operation Matterhorn, the mission to get them home, was described as the biggest peacetime repatriation in UK history.

Thomas Cook's collapse left around 150,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas
Thomas Cook's collapse left around 150,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas

The company, which began life in 1841, had yearly sales of £9.6bn and 19m annual customers, while its UK airline had a fleet of 44 aircraft serving dozens of destinations in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and North America. The figures all mark it as the biggest travel failure in British history.

Flybmi

2019

East Midlands-based carrier Flybmi ceased trading in February, leaving thousands stranded abroad and ruining the holiday plans of many more. The airline's fleet of 17 aircraft flew 522,000 passengers in 2018 to 25 European cities. It blamed the collapse on fuel prices and "Brexit uncertainty", but aviation analyst John Grant suggested it was simply unable to compete in a saturated market. "There are perhaps too many airlines in Europe today relative to the size of the market, with too many struggling to keep market share," he warned at the time. "In the United States, five major airlines provide some 80 per cent plus of scheduled capacity and that may be where the European market will head over time."

Primera

2018

The collapse of low-cost Primera in October 2018 affected an estimated 60,000 travellers. The airline, registered in Denmark but founded in Iceland, switched its focus to long-haul services in 2017. It briefly offered transatlantic flights from two UK airports (Stansted and Birmingham) to Boston, Washington DC and New York (Newark), while plans were put in place for routes to Toronto. Primera hoped to quadruple its fleet in three years and there was even talk of flights to California, China and India.

But problems emerged at the beginning of the 2018. Poor sales saw it ditch Birmingham-Boston and cut the frequency of its service to Newark. “It was harder to sell Birmingham to American and Canadian passengers than London,” said an airline spokeswoman at the time.

All flights from Birmingham to North America were ditched in May, and all short-haul services from the city followed in July. Toronto fell from Primera’s route map just 15 days before the inaugural flight, and the airline ceased operations soon after. While Primera had a significant number of short-haul routes, its downfall would appear to have been hastened by its ambitious attempt to conquer America. It blamed delayed delivery of new aircraft, among other things, but poor customer service and a lack of demand for its curious routes (Birmingham to Boston?) was surely the greater factor.

Monarch

2017

The collapse of Monarch in 2017 sparked Britain's biggest ever peacetime repatriation (until Thomas Cook's demise, that is). Around 100,000 of its passengers were abroad on October 2, when it ceased trading, while a further 750,000 people had paid for flights they were no longer able to take.

Until its collapse, Monarch served 43 destinations with a fleet of 35 aircraft. It flew 5.43 million passengers and employed 2,300 people in 2016, making it Europe's 26th largest airline (it carried more than seven million fliers in 2014).

Air Berlin

2017

Just one week after the collapse of Monarch, Air Berlin, Germany’s second largest carrier and Europe’s 10th biggest overall (it flew 28.9m passengers in 2016), announced its closure. It had declared bankruptcy two months before after years of losses and the decision of its biggest shareholder, Etihad, to cease bankrolling it.

At the time John Grant suggested more failures could be on the cards: "The competitive environment has become increasingly challenging for many airlines, with many established legacy airlines launching low-cost long-haul services and the continual growth in services from airlines such as easyJet, Ryanair and Norwegian. This has resulted in many mid-market carriers with relatively high cost bases being continually squeezed to a point of failure."

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