Airlines that stopped flying in 2024 (the list is open as of 21/10/24)
This year I’ve waited a bit to open the traditional airline bankruptcy list (if curious, here is the 2023 edition and here the list of airlines that stopped flying in 2022), but as the first names start to trickle in, I started compiling it again.
Please note that this is a manually curated list, often made with tips I get from readers in all corners of the world, so if there is some airline that stopped flying this year, please let me know!
Air Malta
This is an interesting one, not just because it is a historical brand, but also because it is more of a transformation than a proper demise. In fact, Air Malta as an entity is closing down, but its place will be taken by a new company set up by the Maltese government called KM Malta Airlines, which is, basically, Air Malta under a different guise. It is true that the new entity starts not just with a clean balance sheet, but also with a different strategy, so will see how it goes this time!
FlyArna (Armenia)
A joint venture between Air Arabia and a local firm, FlyArna aspired to become the flag carrier of this small nation in the Caucasus, but it looks like it didn’t fulfill the expectations.
Competition from other LCCs such as the local subsidiary of Moldovan carrier FlyOne and Wizz Air as well as from Russian and Middle Eastern airlines, left little space in what is, ultimately, a rather small market. I guess, the state of constant tension in the region (with constant flares ups in the conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan) hasn’t helped either. Fly Arna operated 3 Airbus A320-family aircraft during its period of maximum activity. All flights were suspended on January 29 and the AOC was withdrawn in March.
Air Vanuatu
The airline of this tiny Pacific Ocean nation announced a temporal flight suspension as it restructures. As it happens, we covered Air Vanuatu on this site in the past, when the carrier ordered new Airbus A220 aircraft, a deal that gathered quite some interest at the time, because it is rare to see A220s in the type of routes that Air Vanuatu operated, linking the island to Australia, New Zealand and other far flung Pacific Ocean territories.
Glad to learn from a reader that Air Vanuatu has resumed domestic services in August 2024 after several months grounded!
Humo Air (Uzbekistan)
As far as brevity is concerned, Humo Air must be a record holder. The new Uzbek low cost carrier launched in December 2023, one of a crop of new airlines that have emerged in the Central Asian nation as it liberalizes its air travel market. Humo Air was aiming to have a fleet of 18-aircraft fleet by 2025 and will eventually offer a network of 60 destinations, but looks like that’s not going to happen.
Lynx Air (Canada)
A reader (thanks Julia!) has brought to my attention the demise of this Canadian low cost carrier, which until 2021 was known as Enerjet. I must confess I didn’t know about this carrier, despite having a sizable (for Canada) fleet of 9 Boeing 737 MAX plus another 38 (!) on order.
LIAT (Antigua and Barbuda)
This is not the first time that we include LIAT in this list of airlines that cease operations. In 2020 LIAT stopped flying and was about to be liquidated, but it somehow managed to survive in a restructured form. However, in early 2024, this Caribbean regional carrier succumbed again and stopped flying.
JetAir Caribbean (Curaçao)
Yet another airline in the Caribbean, although this one, admittedly, quite small. It was operating a single Fokker 70 aircraft regionally before filing for bankruptcy.
Tailwind Air (US)
This was a rather unique airline, flying scheduled seaplane services between Manhattan and Boston. Although it offered the convenience of downtown to downtown ops, it looks like there wasn’t enough demand to sustain this operation. Tailwind Air announced that it is looking for investors willing to take on the business.
Jetlines (Canada)
A small Canadian airline which started operations in 2022 (although it was founded a few years earlier). It operated a fleet of 4 Airbus A320 aircraft.
CSA (Czech Republic)
We had anticipated, wrongly it turned out, the demise of CSA already in our 2021 airline bankruptcy list. But this historic Czech airline, which entered the very exclusive club of centenary airlines in 2023, managed to survive, albeit in a very reduced form. After its near death experience in 2021, CSA was limited to a fleet of 2 A320s which operated only a couple of European routes (Madrid and Paris at the time of writing these lines).
Four new Airbus A220s had been ordered via a leasing company, but these won’t get to fly in CSA colours, since Prague City Air, the company that controls both CSA and the other Czech airline Smartwings, which is also a CSA shareholder, has decided to reorganize internally.
This will involve the conversion of CSA into a holding company and the transfer of all air operations to Smartwings. As a side effect of this decision, SkyTeam will lose CSA as a member (not that it was making much of a contribution at the moment) and the historical “OK” airline code will be discontinued.
OTT Airlines (China)
Learning also from a reader that this subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines, set up in 2020, is also being folded. Two curiosities I learned while reading about this airline: “OTT” stands for “One, Two, Three Airlines” and it operated a fleet of more than 20 Chinese-made ARJ21 aircraft (a Chinese airliner that looks suspiciously similar to the MD-80/90 series).
Vistara (India)
This is not really a bankruptcy, but an airline brand that is being folded into another, larger airline, Air India in this case, following a merger.
Eagle Air (Iceland)
This was a small, regional airline operating within Iceland.
Lamnei Airlines (Cambodia)
At some point a few years ago there was an aviation boom in Cambodia and quite a few airlines were launch. Some of these have been closing down since. This is also the case of Lamnei Airlines, which operated a small Airbus A320-family fleet primarily connecting Cambodia to China and other countries in South East Asia.
FlyEgypt (Egypt)
This small low cost and charter operator with strong focus on routes to Saudi Arabia, had only one B737-800 left when it ceased operations in October 2024.