New airlines launched in 2023 - the list is now closed
It is great to see how year after year (see the new airlines list of 2022) there is no shortage of entrepreneurs willing to get into this very challenging industry.
To be fair, many of the airlines we have featured as new airlines of the year have ended up, not long after in the bankrupt airlines list, which we also publish and update yearly. I guess 2023 will not be an exception, but in every crop there are also some airlines that manage to get themselves well established in the markets they have identified as having some sort of gap to cover.
Let’s see who the new airlines of 2023 are:
Ghana Airlines
The new flag carrier of this West African country has been in the making for quite some time and it seems that a decision has finally been taken to launch this 2023. Although, to be clear, passengers will have to wait a bit, at least until Q3 when the new carrier should be ready for take off. The new Ghanaian airline will be managed by a venture of Ashanti Airlines and Zotus Group, a UK-based investment firm. This decision has been criticized by some observers, which question the choice of Ashanti Airlines, apparently a firm with no track record in the industry, over well known industry names (Ethiopian Airlines, for example) that at some point or another had been touted to lead this project. You can read more about this project here.
Aerus (Mexico)
A regional airline based in Monterrey, in northern Mexico. It is expected to start operations in Q1 2023 with Cessna GranCaravan and SkyCourier. It also seems to be looking ahead, since it has ordered 30 Alice electric aircraft from Eviation.
Centrum (Uzbekistan)
You may not have heard about it and, in fact, there is little information out there about it (in English at least), but it looks like this is a really ambitious startup airline. Uzbekistan is going through a period of development and expansion of its air travel industry and the emergence of new airlines seems to be a logical consequence of this. Centrum has received already 2 A320s and 2 B737s and has plans to grow its fleet to 20 aircraft by year end, 100 aircraft by 2026 and a route network spanning 15 countries!
Air Samarkand (Uzbekistan)
Yet another example of the opening of the Uzbek air travel market, which has spurred entrepreneurship in the commercial aviation industry. Air Samarkand is expected to debut at some point in the first half of 2023 before the end of 2023, although at the time of writing these lines it has yet to receive its AOC. According to reports in the local press, it will start with a couple of A320s it has received an Airbus A330 and an A320 and it is expected to reach five aircraft before the end of the year. Air Samarkand plans to operate around 14 routes, some as far as the UAE, Turkey and Israel, in addition to flying to Russia and other markets in the region.
Sky Vision Airlines (Egypt)
This airline started operating in the first days of 2023 with a single Airbus A320. It seems to be involved in some sort of charter or ACMI operation, since it is not possible to book flights directly on its site, neither does it show any type of schedule.
Air Moana (French Polynesia, France)
This is a new inter-island carrier operating ATR turboprops in this French overseas territory, which is spread over an oceanic surface larger than Western Europe. Air Moana received its first aircraft in December 2022.
ESAV Airlines (Ecuador)
This is an inter-island, local air service operating in the Galapagos archipelago of Ecuador. It operates two small planes, a Britten Norma Islander for 9 passengers and a Piper Seneca, with a capacity of five. There are three airports in Galápagos: Isabela, Baltra y San Cristóbal.
Yazd Air (Iran)
As everything concerning Iranian commercial aviation, don’t expect state-of-the-art equipment here. 2 A310s and 2 BAe-146 aircraft compose the fleet of Yazd Air. This new airline will apparently fly to domestic destinations, but also some international ones in Turkey and India, for example.
JetSMART Colombia
The demise of Viva Air seems to have accelerated the approval of JetSMART Colombia’s AOC. The lcc of the Indigo Partners group had already applied to enter the Colombian domestic market already in 2022, but the process had been put on hold by the Colombian authorities. The original plan was to base 12 A320-family aircraft in Bogotá (BOG) and operate 111 routes in the country, but it seems that, at least for now, the regulatory approval will cover a much smaller operation, 27 routes. JetSMART also plans to increase the number of frequencies it operates between Colombia and other Latin American countries, like Peru.
City Airlines (Germany)
it looks like Lufthansa is preparing the launch of a new short haul airline in Europe, which appears to be tentatively called City Airlines (it is not clear whether this is going to be the final name). So far it seems that the German group is building the team of this new carrier out of their current staff. The new airline even has a website of its own, even there is little info there at the time of writing these lines.
Silk Avia (Uzbekistan) started flying -> we covered this one (a bit ahead of events) in our 2022 new airlines list.
Air1 (Iran)
A new low cost airline in Iran, of which little else is known other than that it is expected to launch before the end of this year and that they have an active website that shows the tail of a Boeing 737-400 (or so it says on the picture).
Global Airlines (UK)
One of the surprises of the year has been the presentation, with much media fanfare, of this new airline project backed by social media influencer James Asquith, who aims to give a new lease of life to the Airbus A380 (its CCO is Richard Stephenson, former CEO of AeroTime, a media platform I collaborate with). Still many unanswered questions about this project, but certainly one to keep an eye on!)
Mexicana (2.0) (Mexico)
This is one of two historical airlines that have announced a comeback of sorts. The original Mexicana de Aviación was founded as early as 1921, but it went bankrupt and ceased operations in 2010. There have since been plans to refloat it. This time it is the Mexican government, that owns the brand, that aims to relaunch it through its ministry of defense. Although not all details are yet known, the comeback of Mexicana could take place in Q4 2023, with the airline planning to operated, reportedly, a fleet of 10 Boeing 737-800s
Monarch (2.0) (UK) -> just a few days after announcing the potential re-launch of Monarch Airlines, the proponents of the project said that they were putting it on hold
Another airline that may be staging a comeback is Monarch. The British airline used to operate charter and regular flights mostly to leisure destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands until it ceased operations in 2017. Airways Magazine reported that investors are getting ready to reactivate Monarch Airlines, although little more is known, also no official AOC exists at the time these reports emerged.
Discovery (Germany)
I was undecided whether to include this one or not. I finally opted to include it since the new corporate identity of Lufthansa’s leisure/low-cost airline has changed significantly enough to consider it, in a way, a new airline…BUT it is not really new, it is a rebranding of Eurowings. The latest attempt of Lufthansa to fix the branding of its low cost subsidiary.
Valletta Airlines (Malta)
This is an ACMI and charter airline based in Malta and backed by Cypriot investors. As of November 2023 it operates a single Airbus A320 aircraft.
Well, this is not really a “new” airline, since it is the new name and brand of AnadoluJet, a 100% Turkish Airlines subsidiary (although this may change soon if the long rumoured IPO takes place). The rebranding has been so thorough, though, that I thought it was worth including it here. AJet-AnadoluJet used to cater mostly to the domestic market in Turkey, but it has been increasing its international footprint recently.
BeOnd (Maldives)
This one had been widely anticipated, since BeOnd had been teasing, offering glimpses of its luxury service, for quite some time. BeOnd is a luxury “boutique” airline that aims to connect the Maldives to the rest of the world with an all-business fleet. BeOnd launched its first flights from Munich and Zurich to Male via Riyadh this November and plans to add Milan and Dubai to its network soon too. The airlines first aircraft is an Airbus A319 specially configured for 68 passengers. In the near future BeOnd expects to operate larger A321LRs. Its project calls for a fleet of 32 aircraft within 5 yars.
NG Eagle (Nigeria)
The Nigerian airline industry seems to be in a constant state of flux, with new airlines attempting to enter a market that, despite the size of the country, lacks any large operators. The latest is NG Eagle which has started operations with an Airbus A320 wet leased from a Lithuanian firm. A second aircraft of the same type is, reportedly, to arrive soon.
Naysa (Canary Islands, Spain)
A reader alerted me of the existence of this newly created airline in the Canary Islands. It is, in fact, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Binter, a regional airline that operates out of this Spanish archipelago. I was hesitant to include it, since it seems that its operations are undistinguishable from those of Binter. Naysa “recycles” the name of another airline that existed in 2017 and was also owned by Binter. In any case, since it had obtained its own AOC, I finally decided to include it in the list.
Bermudair (Bermuda)
Another airline conceived to cater to premium leisure traffic and flying out of an island destination (the other that launched this year is BeOnd, see above). However, Bermudair seems to have pivoted from its original plan to be an all-business airline and has decided to keep the two-class arrangement with which it launched. Bermudair operates E175 aircraft between this Atlantic archipelago and the East Coast of the US.