The Airlines That Have Gone Out Of Business (So Far) Due To COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has very obviously had huge effects on every aspect on pretty much everything, and it is still quite far from being over. As a result, it has permanently changed the aviation industry in many ways, from route planning to safety procedures, and has consequently led to many airlines going out of business. Now, I have to say, I am surprised at how many airlines have actually survived the pandemic (so far), as I thought for certain that some airlines (cough cough Hong Kong Airlines) wouldn’t make it a month into the pandemic, though I was mistaken.

While some airlines such as LATAM, Avianca, and Virgin Atlantic have in part filed for bankruptcy, and the vast majority of airlines have had to downsize and tragically layoff a significant portion of their employees, very few high profile airlines have actually stopped flying on a permanent basis, which I guess is a good thing (but then again, I’m sure many will still succumb to the economic downturn COVID has brought us). With all that being said, let’s take a look at some of the airlines that have gone out of business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Flybe

Flybe, the well-known British regional airline flying to lesser served communities within Great Britain, was among the first to fail during the COVID-19 pandemic. Flybe has been around since 1979 and operated a fleet of De Havilland Q400s and Embraer E175s. In 2019, Flybe was already in heavy financial trouble, but it was bought by Connect Airways, owned by Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Aviation, with plans to rebrand the airline as Virgin Connect. Despite the subsequent financial backing in 2019, Flybe stayed on the brink of liquidation throughout the year and continued to have huge losses going into 2020.

At the beginning of 2020, the British government provided Flybe with lifeline funding which was supposed to ensure that the airline stayed in service. However, come March, the effects of the coronavirus started to be felt in Europe and had already started to lessen demand. On March 5, 2020, Flybe ended up ceasing operations, which was quite tragic, given the amount of routes which Flybe operated to smaller towns and cities in the British Isles that weren’t large enough for BA to fly to.

Trans States Airlines & Compass Airlines

Now is the time where we enter the US regional airline portion of this list, of which there have been a few that have ceased operations. Trans States Airlines has been flying since 1982 and originally operated regional aircraft on behalf of TWA, though, since then, it has operated aircraft on behalf of regional subsidiaries of US mainline airlines such as United Express or Delta Connection. Meanwhile, Compass Airlines operated flights for Delta Connection and American Eagle, and had originally operated flights for Northwest Express. Both were owned by Trans States Holdings, which additionally owned Go Jet Airlines, its only subsidiary still flying.

Trans States Airlines operated a fleet of E145s while Compass Airlines operated a fleet of Embraer E175s. Trans States Airlines ceased operations on April 1, 2020, largely due to the effects of COVID-19, with most of its fleet being transferred to ExpressJet, which has now since also gone under. Meanwhile, Compass Airlines went out of business on April 7, 2020 due to the decreased demand from the pandemic, with Delta Connection’s aircraft operated by Compass being taken over by Republic Airways and SkyWest Airlines, while American Eagle’s aircraft were taken over by Envoy Air.

ExpressJet

Last summer, United Express made the decision to condense its regional operators of the Embraer E145 from two to one, with CommutAir and ExpressJet being the two operates of that fleet type. Both solely operated for United Express, so the airline which lost the contract was doomed to go under. Unfortunately for ExpressJet, CommutAir was chosen to be the surviving airline by United, which led ExpressJet to cease operations on September 30, 2020. This was excellent news for CommutAir as it actually more than doubled in size and now operates over 130 E145s, as opposed to the 37 they operated before the transfer of all of ExpressJet’s fleet to CommutAir. It seems that CommutAir had a lower cost structure, which is likely why United went with them over ExpressJet. While Commutair currently has over 130 E145s, I would be surprised if United doesn’t decide to retire a significant portion of its E145 fleet, as they on average are quite old and are less efficient than newer E175s.

The choice was especially sad for the industry, as ExpressJet has been around since 1986. As of only a few years ago it operated nearly 500 aircraft, though after a series of contract terminations with American Eagle and Delta Connection, United Express was the sole airline that contracted ExpressJet until it terminated its contract this summer.

Miami Air International

Miami Air International was a charter airline that operated a fleet of Boeing 737-800s based out of (quite obviously) Miami and operated flights for a variety of customers such as cruise lines, sports charters, or the military. They weren’t exactly very well known, though they have been around since 1990, though they are perhaps most well known for when one of their aircraft overshot the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in 2019 on a flight originating in Guantanamo Bay. Unfortunately, due to a lack of demand, they ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 24, 2020, and ceased operations and liquidated on May 8, 2020. Miami Air International is the only non-regional airline so far from the United States that has shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NokScoot

I’ve always found NokScoot to be somewhat of an interesting airline, given that it was owned by both Nok Air and Scoot, which I guess just sort of decided to combine names to form a hybrid airline between the two. Nok Air, a low-cost Thai airline, had a 51% stake in NokScoot, while Scoot is Singapore Airlines’ low-cost branch and had a 49% stake in the airline. NokScoot basically just combined the two airlines’ business models, as it operated long-haul low-cost flights out of Bangkok Don Mueang International Airport; Nok Air solely operates narrow-body jets while Scoot at the time NokScoot was founded solely operated wide-body jets out of Singapore, though they have since taken over TigerAir’s A320 aircraft. I am honestly surprised that this joint-venture ever happened, since Nok Air competes with Thai Airways, a member of the same alliance (Star Alliance) as Singapore Airlines, Scoot’s parent company.

NokScoot operated a fleet of (in the end) high density 7 Boeing 777-200ERs in a two-class configuration (with economy and premium economy) from Bangkok to destinations within Asia, mostly to China and Japan, though also to Taipei and Delhi. NokScoot’s aircraft were ex-Scoot and Singapore Airlines, and shared a similar livery with Scoot, though they had a different tail logo and have a (bird-like) beak on the nose of the aircraft. On June 26, 2020, they unfortunately entered liquidation, though it honestly isn’t surprising given how small of an airline they were, and it also seems that they haven’t turned a profit since their foundation in 2014.

TAME

TAME was the flagship airline of Ecuador and has been another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. It had long since been in financial troubles and at the time of closure operated a fleet of just five aircraft, with an A319, A320, and three ATR 42s. They had previously operated an ex-Emirates Airbus A330-200 which they flew to New York JFK, though they ended JFK flights in early 2019. They were owned by the Ecuadorian government, though they have been in financial turmoil for the past few years. COVID-19 seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for them, and they were liquidated on May 19, 2020. This left Ecuador without an official flag carrier, though LATAM Ecuador and Avianca Ecuador, subsidiaries of the two South American giants, operate sizable operations out of Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador, with LATAM Ecuador even flying to New York JFK.

Cathay Dragon

While this airline didn’t really go out of business per-se, it merged with its parent company in order for it to save costs. Cathay Dragon was a smaller airline based out of Hong Kong, formerly known as Dragonair, which operated a fleet of Airbus A320 series aircraft, along with A330-300s. They operated mostly to destinations within Asia, especially to smaller destinations within China which Cathay Pacific itself didn’t operated to. Cathay Dragon was however a full-service airline, with business class available on all aircraft (they actually used the same seats as Cathay Pacific did on its short-haul fleet), and they even had first class on some of their A330-300s, which actually used the same seat as Cathay Pacific did on its long-haul aircraft. On October 21, 2020, Cathay Pacific announced that it would end its Cathay Dragon brand and consolidate all of its operations from two brands to one, with some Cathay Dragon routes being taken over by Cathay’s low-cost subsidiary which they only recently purchased: HK Express.

With the merger, Cathay Pacific took over all of Cathay Dragon’s A321s and A330s, along with their order for 16 A321neos, which I believe they will start taking delivery of this year. I don’t believe that Cathay Dragon’s remaining A320s were taken over by Cathay Pacific or HK Express, though I could be mistaken. I’m not very surprised at the decision to merge Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon as the two brands were somewhat redundant, as both were full service carriers, and Cathay Pacific was (along with all airlines) going to downsize anyways, so it makes sense to consolidate.

Still Technically An Airline: South African Airways

Oh SAA, the saga seems to never end. South African Airways is technically still an airline, but they’re more or less gone, so while it won’t be easy, I’ll try to cover it in a couple of paragraphs. South African Airways has been in financial trouble for nearly a decade and was in trouble even before the pandemic. In December of 2019, they entered Business Rescue and seemed to get a new cash injection from the South African government in hopes that the airline would stay alive and would cut jobs. However, come April and the worldwide shutdown, the South African government seemed to recognize that it wasn’t worth it to try and pour money into a nearly dead airline and cut off all funding for it. Soon after, the airline started liquidation preparations (if that’s even a thing) and started to sell all of its assets, with close to no hope of it coming back.

Meanwhile, throughout all of this, SAA had been operating repatriation flights around the world. Then in May, SAA confusingly got another bailout, which made absolutely no sense, and later retired close to their entire fleet, with only 12 aircraft currently being in their fleet, two of which are 737 freighters, three of which are A319s, one of which is an A330-300, and four of which are gass-guzzling A340-600s. At that point, I basically had no idea what was going on with SAA, and I’m not sure that (actually I’m quite sure that they don’t) the South African government does either.

South African Airways currently seems to be still in a desperate search for funding, and suspended operations once again in late September. Meanwhile, there has been talk of creating a new national South African airline altogether, and another, possibly different, airline seems to be in the works as a joint venture between Kulula and Global Aviation. Who knows what will happen with South African Airways; it’s been on the verge of collapse for almost a year now, but something tells me that maybe, just maybe, like the seemingly dozens of times it’s happened before, the South African government will not let it die.

Will (Probably) Be Renamed: Alitalia

Alitalia has also been in financial peril for seemingly decades, with ownership having changed countless times. Back in 2014, Etihad took a 49% stake in the airline, but like all Etihad subsidiaries, in what I call the Etihad curse, it soon failed and filed for bankruptcy in 2017. After years of change in ownership, Alitalia finally came under complete control by the Italian government in April of 2020, as it seems that the Italian bureaucrats just can’t handle the idea of not having an Italian flag carrier. However, in early October, plans were announced to rename the airline as ITA–Italia Trasporti Aereo–which would completely replace the Alitalia brand.

It definitely makes some degree of sense to just start over and just start anew and create new airline, after all of the financial hardships that Alitalia has been in over the past couple decades. While it would be a compeltely new airline, it would probably take over many of Alitalia’s assets and fleet, though little details have been revealed, such as if it would join SkyTeam like Alitalia or if it would order 787s, like Alitalia was previously rumored to be considering.

Conclusion

There obviously were a lot more airlines that have ceased to fly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a more complete list being available here. All airlines have had to reorganize in some way, shape, or form due to the pandemic, and the vast majority have had to downsize their fleet, and many have had to tragically furlough thousands. Many have even entered bankruptcy (which of course doesn’t necessarily mean that the airline will stop flying–almost all major US airlines have been in bankruptcy in over the past two decades) However, I am somewhat surprised as to how many airlines have continued to fly, and certainly hope that most will too.