2019: A Tough Year for many Airline Companies

Various airline companies went bankrupt in 2019. Approximately 18 companies went bankrupt over the year such as Jet Airways, Flybmi, Thomas Cook, and Avianca Brasil.

As of November, last year, there were exactly 18 airline companies that went bankrupt as per the report namely Adria Airways – Slovenia, Air Philip – South Korea, Aerolineas de Antioquia – Colombia, Aigle Azur – France, Al Naser Wings Airline –Iraq, Asian Express Airline – Tajikistan,

Avianca Argentina – Argentina, Avianca Brazil – Brazil, California Pacific Airlines – USA, Fly Jamaica Airways – Jamaica, Flybmi – UK, Germania – Germany, Insel Air – Curacao, Jet Airways – India, Thomas Cook Airlines – UK, Wisdom Airways – Thailand, WOW Air – Iceland, and XL Airways – France.

As you will notice, bankruptcies have increased at the fastest rate ever in 2019. The reasons behind this include higher fuel costs, a strong dollar, and the weaker companies being unable to compete against low-cost models. The majority of the airlines on the given list are small or low-cost carriers.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the larger bankruptcy cases and find out what went wrong:

Thomas Cook is really in the memory of many in the UK. It went bankrupt on September 23 since it failed to secure £200 million as funds. Unfortunately, this airline company left more than 600,000 passengers stranded worldwide. In line with this, it prompted the UK’s largest ever peacetime repatriation operation. This also marked the end of the 178-year history of the well-known UK tour operator.

Jet Airways announced that it was ceasing operations on April 17. It’s been struggling for some time and the final string was the refusal of the emergency funds coming from the State Bank of India to remain in the operation. It used to be one of the largest airline companies in India with at least 120 fleets in operation.

WOW Air originally offers low-cost European flights but was able to expand in a short period to the US. It experienced financial difficulty in mid-2018. It faced bankruptcy on March 28, 2019.

Adria Airways announced its bankruptcy on September 30 as it had no revenue since 2014. On the other hand, Aigle Azur, the second-largest airline in France went bankrupt on September 27. For Flybmi, it went bankrupt due to rising fuel prices as well as the EU’s decision to exclude UK airlines in the Emissions Trading Schemes. Lastly, for Avianca Brazil and Avianca Argentina, they went bankrupt in June.