UPDATED (31/12/22) - The 2022 airline bankruptcy list is now closed
New year, new list of airlines that, for one reason or another, are forced to cease or suspend operations indefinitely. As we have seen in previous years (see here the airline bankruptcy lists for 2019, 2020 and 2021) some of those airlines manage to stage a comeback, some others end up confined to the pages of history.
Airleap (Sweden)
This small regional all-turboprop airline announced it was ceasing operations on 24 Jan. “in order to reorganize”. Will see how it turns out.
EGO Airways (Italy)
A short lived venture, this Italian airline got started in mid-2020 (not the best of times to launch an airline!) operating a single Embraer E190.
Eswatini Airlink (Eswatini)
More aviation news from the tiny African country of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). When recently adding Eswatini Air to the list of new airlines of 2022, we noted how the country already had a national carrier of sorts in the form of Eswatini Airlink (a joint venture with the eponymous South African airline). Eswatini airlink is to close down this coming June, though. When it comes to the airline business, the country’s authorities seem to prefer to go alone.
Tel Aviv Air (Germany)
This was a truly short-lived airline! Started flying in March 2022 and filed for bankruptcy in May! Airlines that are dedicated to a single specific route tend to be quite fragile…In this case, the goal was to establish a direct link between Hamburg and Tel Aviv, flying with a TUS Airways A320, so it was a sort of virtual airline.
GCA Airlines (Colombia)
Gran Colombia de Aviación (GCA) was a Colombian domestic carrier operating out of Cali. It had been operating since 2019 with a, rather vintage, fleet of 3 B737-400s and 3 Fokker 50s. (although unclear how many of these were really active by the time it suspended operations in April 2022.
AB Aviation (Comoros)
This was, apparently, the largest operator in the Comoros, an archipelago off the East African coast, operating a fleet of 4 Embraer aircraft. As pointed out by a reader (thanks!) it had its AOC revoked in March 2022.
Kamchatka Airlines (Russia)
This was a rather small operator that had launched in late 2021 to connect destinations in Russia’s large and rather remote Kamchatka peninsula, in Russia’s Far East just opposite Alaska. Kamchatka Airlines has had to return the Cessna Grand Caravan it had been operating and can not receive the other three aircraft of the same type it had on order due to sanctions related to the war in Ukraine.
Kulula.com & Comair (South Africa)
This may be just temporary, but BA South African associate Comair and its low cost subsidiary Kulula.com (a pioneer of the LCC formula in Africa) have suspended operations as of 31/5/22 have entered liquidation procedures (as of 12th June 2022). It has been a rough time for many of South Africa’s airlines, and Comair and Kulula.com are, apparently in urgent need of fresh funds.
Bees Airlines (Ukraine)
This small private Ukrainian LCC, which was on a growth trajectory right before the Russian invasion, has seen its AOC cancelled. The reason is apparently that, with its fleet having been returned to lessors, it has now less than the two aircraft local authorities deem necessary to hold the AOC. When the war started and the Ukrainian airspace was closed, Bees sent its then four-strong B737-800 fleet to storage in Montpellier, France. To learn more about what the different Ukrainian airlines did to adapt to the new war situation, see this piece I wrote for The Points Guy.
ExpressJet (aha!) (USA)
Not the first appearance on this list for ExpressJet, it stopped flying back in 2020, to then stage a comeback as “aha!” (a brand that stands for Air-Hotel-Adventure). It operated ERJ145 aircraft in the Western US, but on 23rd August it announced it is ending its operations.
Blue Air (Romania)
LCC Blue Air is stopping operations temporarily due to its funds being, apparently, blocked by the Romanian government. Will see how it goes and whether it manages to come back from the brink. It operates a fleet of 14 Boeing 737 of different versions.
At the close of the year it seemed likely that the Romanian government was about to take a 75% stake in the company, perhaps with a view to restructure and relaunch it somehow, but Blue Air’s comeback and its future as a going concern remained very uncertain.
Air Albania
Albanian authorities have ordered the suspension of Air Albania’s all business activities. The reason is that, apparently the airline has not disclose the ultimate beneficial owners. According to some media reports, this is may not be the only potential irregularity detected. Interestingly, Turkish Airlines is a partner of the small Albanian carrier and holds a significant equity stake.
In September it had been reported that the Albanian authorities had ordered the suspension of the airline’s activities, but whatever happened, it seems to have been sorted shortly after, since by November Air Albania was back in action.
Genghis Khan Airlines (China)
A reader brought to my attention the fact that Genghis Khan Airlines, an airline based in China’s Inner Mongolia region has got into liquidation procedures. Interestingly its fleet was composed entirely of Chinese-made ARJ21 jets.
Tchadia Airlines (Tchad)
Yet another reminder of how tough it is to run an airline in Africa. Tchadia was the national airline of Tchad and, even if it had the backing of the continent’s most successful airline (Ethiopian), its 2 Dash Q400 aircraft stopped flying in August.