Airlines that may (or may not) come back (updated as of 13/11/20)

Picture: Sal Pilot

On this site you can find a list of airlines that go bankrupt every year.

But, as I guess you have already figured out by now, commercial aviation is an industry that tends to attract dreamers, enthusiasts and entrepreneurs of all sorts, not the sort of people that give up easily.

Even in these very dire times for the commercial aviation industry, even if some of those airlines were still suffering from chronic problems well before coronavirus hit, there is still people plotting and scheming to bring back to the fore airlines that had been all but written off…

in parallel to this, a number of those airlines that were sort of written off already may still be poised to make a comeback

So this is the list of airlines that may (or my not) still stage a come back soon:

• Flybe (UK)

  Flybe is an interesting case, because already for many months before the Covid-19 pandemic and its official demise, the British regional airline was the stage of several corporate moves that aim to re-capitalise, re-orient and, generally speaking, to re-launch it. And this may be finally about to happen, and Flybe may be back in the skies by Q1 of 2021. The firm behind this operation is a company connected to Cyrus Capital, one of the financial players behind the previous acquisition bid (on that occasion, together with the Virgin Group and Stobart Aviation).

• Jet Airways (India)

  An Indian private investor has bought whatever assets were left of what was once India’s second largest airline, apparently with the intention of relaunching it. Bringing it back is going to be quite a challenge, considering how competitive the Indian market has been these last few years!

• BRA (Sweden)

  This regional Swedish airline stopped all operations last spring, although it did not disappear as a going concern. The latest news is that it is about to emerge from restructuring and resume operations soon.

• South African Airways

  A $640M government bailout may finally prevent South African Airways from disappearing altogether. The chronically financially-ailing airline that had been pretty much all but written off may actually bounce back on the shoulders of South African taxpayers. A decision that has been controversial, to say the least.

• Go2Sky (Slovakia)

  This Slovakian ACMI airline was expected to go out of business this month (and therefore had been included in our airlines’ demise list), but apparently managed to reach a last minute deal with creditors, so it will keep going for a while (although with a somewhat reduced fleet)

• LIAT

  The Caribbean regional carrier seems to be ready for a relaunch before the end of 2020. This is thanks to strong support from the government of the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, to whom other Caribbean governments will sell their shares in the venture. The new LIAT will be much smaller than its predecessor, though, keeping only 3 ATR truboprops.

• Miami Air (USA)

  Reports that, following its sale to a new investor, Miami Air is ready for a new start with a single Boeing 737-800

• Ravn (USA)

  The Alaskan regional carrier is back and, with it, an essential service to many remote communities scattered all over America’s largest state.