It’s that time of the year once again where we review those airlines that had their wings clipped. Last year, I said it was a pretty good year in terms of the airlines we lost. If that’s true, then this was a rock star kind of year. There were very few airlines that went under at all – this took a lot of sleuthing to dig up anything remotely interesting. Next year, we’ll have some big names in Continental and AirTran, but this year, let’s enjoy the relative silence.
Mandala Airlines – January 13, 2011
Anytime an Indonesian airline fails, I figure nobody cares. It’s a fairly regular occurrence over there, chances are it wasn’t exactly a safe airline anyway. This one was different. When Mandala shut down in January, it said it vowed to return to the skies. How many times have we heard that? But this time, it’s true. See, Mandala is partially owned by Indigo. Indigo has a stake in a bunch of low cost airlines including Spirit and Tiger. Yes, Mandala may come out as Tiger Mandala so Tiger can get a foothold in Indonesia. So, Mandala is dead, technically. But it may rise from the grave again.
Wataniya Airways – March 16, 2011
Wataniya seemed promising in the way that anything in the Middle East seems promising. It was sort of a premium low cost model with business and premium economy seating throughout the Middle East from its base in Kuwait. Its base was something awesome in its own right – it flew out of a private terminal. While something this crazy could only work in the Middle East, even that didn’t work. The airline lost a bunch of money and eventually was shut down, a mere couple years after it first started flying.
Air Cuenca – June 21, 2011
This one could have been seen coming a mile away. Ecuador is a crowded place with a lot of airlines vying for domestic traffic. Air Cuenca was started to, um, do the same thing as everyone else. Based in Cuenca, the hope was that they could build some kind of profitable operation. That was just a silly thought. Its main routes from Cuenca to Guayaquil and Quito were already served by others. There just wasn’t a need for Air Cuenca, and it disappeared quickly. You know you’re insignificant when there isn’t even a Wikipedia page.
Icaro – ?, 2011
Air Cuenca wasn’t the only blood spilled in Ecuador this year as Icaro also went belly up. Well, at least, I think it’s gone. Icaro actually applied to shut down on June 20, but I haven’t seen any confirmation that it’s actually gone. I’m just going to assume that it sailed into the sunset by now. Icaro will actually be sorely missed. At least, horny young guys will miss Icaro a lot since it had lingerie fashion shows. Don’t believe me?
Wow. That’s, um, interesting. Adios, Icaro, I think. If you actually are shut down by now.
Air Southwest – September 30, 2011
Wait, the mighty Southwest has gone under? Yeah, not quite. Air Southwest was a little operator out of the UK with a funny story. It shut down because its primary airport went away. No kidding. Air Southwest started up to fill a void. When British Airways pulled out of Plymouth, Air Southwest stepped right in. Air Southwest tried to grow into a few different airports but nothing really caught on. In 2010, it was bought by Eastern Airways. This year, Plymouth’s City Airport was shut down, and the original plan was to keep flying other routes. Eventually, Eastern decided to just throw in the towel on Air Southwest. Eastern still operates, but Air Southwest is just a memory.
Avianova – October 9, 2011
Avianova was a disaster from the start. This was another Indigo investment that was hoping to be an ultra low cost carrier that could crack the difficult Russian market. That didn’t happen. It actually grew very quickly, becoming the largest airline behind Aeroflot at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo, but then it all fell apart. Typical Russian politics took over and sunk the airline. The major shareholder decided to kick all foreigners out, claiming that they refused to follow Russian law. Indigo fought back, and in the end, the airline went up in a ball of red tape. Nothing was resolved and it shut down. Pathetic.
Lufthansa Italia – October 29, 2011
This wasn’t so much an airline failure as it was a mercy killing. Back when Alitalia was in the throes of bankruptcy, Lufthansa saw an opening. It already had a strong presence in Northern Italy with Air Dolomiti service to nearby Munich, but it wanted more. Lufthansa Italia was an effort to start serving major business markets around Europe from Milan. The ultimate hope, I assume, was to end up taking a piece of the combined Alitalia/Air One and steal them away from SkyTeam for Star Alliance. It didn’t happen. Alitalia/Air One merged, but they stuck with SkyTeam. Lufthansa’s Air Dolomiti is still a solid operation but the Milan hub simply didn’t work. It was axed.
Astraeus – November 21, 2011
I don’t usually write about charter airlines that lease aircraft to other airlines, because you’ve probably never heard of them. But Astraeus was a little different because of its most famous pilot (and, toward the end, marketing director). You might recognize Bruce Dickinson as a lead singer for the metal band Iron Maiden, but he was also quite an accomplished pilot. He even piloted the band around on a reunion tour a couple years back. So it’s sad to see Bruce having to fall back on his other job, but well, things don’t always work out. As for Astraeus, since its main business was in flying airplanes for other airlines, you probably would have never heard of them were it not for Bruce.
23 comments on “Airlines We Lost in 2011”
Air Cuenca had one leased airplane. It went off the runway and damaged the landing gear. Then, the regulators determined that there was no repair plan and no source of spare parts! So, the authority to fly was revoked. The plane was repaired and is no longer in Cuenca.
Icaro is still in business after 40 years. It is serving only three cities from Quito – Coca, Manta, and the Galapagos. It withdrew from other routes when the Ecuadoran government instituted fuel efficiency requirements for airlines. Icaro could not afford to upgrade it’s fleet. It currently has 2 BOEING 737-200 ADVANCE–17 airplanes, and several helicopters.
So do you know when the plan is for Icaro to shut down for good? It sounded like it was just a lengthy process.
I live in Ecuador, and have not seen any news about Icaro since the announcement that they asked to be dissolved in June, 2011. The company did not pay all taxes due in 2007 and 2008. Perhaps the government is keeping them flying until they pay them.
I’ve actually heard of a couple of these carriers.
Indonesian seems to be a place you hear about a lot of new start ups who don’t last, and that part of the world seems to have a number of acidents. It’s never struck me as a safe place to fly, and since the country is a bunch of spread out islands, you can understand the need for flying. Is there any regulations at all in the country? Seems anyone can start an airline at anytime or anywhere in the country and no one cares.
Mandala was hardly a ‘start-up’ having been around since 1969. Owned by interests linked to the Indonesian armed forces until 2006 when it was sold to private investors.
It’s safety record, though not perfect, was pretty good for a domestic airline operating into airports with limited approach aids in a mountainous country with tropical weather conditions. They were still operating Electras and Viscounts into the 1990s. Bliss!
@David SF “Seems anyone can start an airline at anytime or anywhere in the country and no one cares.”
Probably depends on whose hand is ‘greased’?
After pretty much every airline ended up on the EU blacklist, Indonesia started trying to clean up its act. The problem is that they end up getting political. So they decide to ban old airplanes instead of doing a better job of monitoring maintenance. I’m sure there are other countries that are just as bad, but Indonesia is so big that there’s just more opportunity for problems.
Pretty much everyone is banned except AirAsia and Garuda who flies CGK-DXB-AMS.
Also the problem is huge in Indonesia because there are so many islands, so ground transport is not an option. Yet many people still choose to fly banned airlines like Lion Air, which has 200 fairly safe and new 737-900ER’s. Most of the other small airlines probably stay afloat using old 747’s on Hajj routes.
I think the biggest beneficiary is Singapore Airlines, which runs Silk Air on a bunch of these regional Indonesian routes to SIN and beyond.
Didn’t we also technically lose Continental this year? Or will that be on next years list?
My measure for when we lose an airline is when you can no longer buy a ticket on it. That should happen for Continental in March when the two reservation systems combine. So I’m holding out on that one until next year.
A few more: Amsterdam Airlines (charter), Robin Hood (Austria) and Albanian Airlines.
Regarding AVIANOVA, My personal opinion is that AEROFLOT and the [Putin] Russian government was behind the move to kill a very big threat to the national airline. In todays Russia this could not be allowed. A pity and a big hit on Russian consumer travel options.
Doing business in Russia never chjanges. Investors have better AND SAFER odds in Las Vegas!
Ah, my favorite post of the year. Pretty light this year. Good/bad, depending on your perspective.
According to the Houston Chronicle, at the end of November 2010, UA/CO received a single-operating certificate from the received Federal Aviation Administration, which the carrier called “another significant achievement in the integration of United Airlines and Continental Airlines.”
http://www.chron.com/business/article/United-Continental-get-permission-to-fly-as-one-2308666.php
So CO should be on your list.
Yeah but the Continental name is still on some of the planes, and their website is still up and taking reservations.
No, I am with Brett on this one. I have recently had some travel software try to jump the gun on calling my CO# “United” for an example, and it just hoses everything up. Even though the call sign is gone, CO is still around and distinct enough from UA that it isn’t dead yet.
Furthermore, how do you decide which one is the dead one? Yes, it will be called United, but if I recall properly even the operating license is the CO license just renamed United. It is the CO management and largely policies in the important respects, and they killed the tulip. Maybe the tulip belongs on this year’s list…
I believe that LH Italia had a better brand recognition for Star Alliance than Air Dolomiti and has converted some people who were tired of the Alitalia political craziness and crappy service perception (whether or not that’s true).
LH has since beefed up flights and routes everyone through MUC. So I think the experiment was somewhat of a success.
Speaking of horny young guys, I think avianova had some ridiculous advertising, aimed at that demographic.
Ya missed Indian Airlines, the “domestic” airline of India that merged with Air India. Also it had the double bogie A320 landing gears