Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. That’s right, 2024 is nearly done, and as usual there were a slew of airlines that did not make it to see the ball drop in Times Square. Let’s not keep you waiting. Here are the highlights (lowlights?):
LIAT 1974 (Antigua and Barbuda) – January 24
If you’ve ever buzzed around the Caribbean, you may very well be familiar with LIAT. The airline flies regional flights around the islands, primarily from its main base in Antigua. Flies? Yeah, well, see, here’s the thing. This airline has been around in some form since 1956. In 1974, several Caribbean nations took the airline over from the bankrupt Court Line (yes that Court Line), and that’s when this particular entity was formed. It made it a long time, but when COVID hit, debts mounted, and now, LIAT is gone. But not really. Because while LIAT 1974 is gone, LIAT 2020 took its place. Should this even count? Well, sure. I make the rules, after all.
Lynx (Canada) – February 25
This is the one airline that failed in 2024 that I have no trouble remembering the exact date. Why? Well, it was the afternoon of this year’s Cranky Network Awards that we received an email from the Lynx team saying something came up and they couldn’t make it. Shortly after, word got out that Lynx was shutting down. Lynx was in the works for ages under a few different names, but things came together around the pandemic. At that point, it had the best ownership pedigree of all the Canadian ultra low cost carriers, being backed by Bill Franke’s Indigo Partners. But it never did well enough, so they didn’t wait around. They pulled the plug with only eight airplanes in the fleet. I think my favorite thing about this airline is that its legal name was 1263343 Alberta Inc. Just rolls off the tongue.
New Pacific Airlines (United States) – March 23
For all you sticklers, yes, it is true that New Pacific is still technically around. It’s just running charters these days, but its grand plans for scheduled service seem dead as a doornail. The original idea was to use Anchorage the way Icelandair uses Keflavik. But instead of connecting North America to Europe, it was going to connect to Asia. This plan was already a stretch with the longer distances involved over the Pacific, but it was rendered impossible when Russian airspace was blocked for US carriers. So, it pivoted in the weirdest way possible… with flights between Ontario and Las Vegas. Then it dabbled in Reno and Nashville, but none of that ever made sense. Finally, the CEO was out and the whole thing shut down except for that charter operation.
Air Malta (Malta) – March 30
If you liked the LIAT story, get ready for one that’s… pretty much the same thing. They even started flying in the same year, though Air Malta, of course, flew primarily from Malta around the Mediterranean and deeper into Europe. And to be clear, this was the flag carrier of the tiny island and in no way related to Malta Air, the Ryanair subsidiary that was created for favorable labor rules. Air Malta was broke, and the European Commission said it couldn’t pour more money into the airline, so the Maltese government pulled an Alitalia. It created a new airline called KM Malta and shut the old one down. Is this ridiculous? It sure is. But the rules are the rules, no matter how dumb.
iAero (United States) – April 6
I don’t pay too much attention to the charter world, but iAero is one that I did know. Actually, iAero may not be much of a household name, but there is a good chance you knew it by its old name, Swift Air. Swift did all kinds of charter work, ranging from sports teams to John McCain’s presidential campaign aircraft to deportation flights on behalf of the US government. It was bought by iAero Group in 2019, and that’s when it changed its name. Fun fact: iAero owned the Eastern Airlines intellectual property, but it entered into a deal with Dynamic Airways that allowed that airline to use the name in its operations. It’s complicated.
Bonza (Australia) – April 30
If ever there was an airline demise that did not shock me, it was Bonza’s. This airline made no sense in every way possible. It was one of the 777 Partners-backed airlines. I don’t even fully understand what 777 Partners is doing, but the basic idea seems to be to extract high lease payments from its operators, strangling them as best they can, maybe to support their soccer teams? I dunno. Anyway, Bonza had 737 MAX aircraft that were way too big for the point-to-point routes in Australia the airline flew that had little demand. To make things even worse, it only took bookings via its app. I’m honestly surprised this airline even made it to its first birthday. It is survived by Flair in Canada which is still fighting the good fight despite having also been a 777 Partners airline.
Rex (Australia) – July 30
Just like New Pacific, this is another one where the airline has not completely gone out of business… yet… but, well, let me explain. Rex is a little regional airline that has been hopping around Australia with a bunch of props since 2002. Someone must have started having hallucinations, because the airline inexplicably decided to acquire 737s and fly on the country’s busiest routes against heavy competition. It did not work, and this year, the airline gave up that plan completely. The worst part is that this failure was big enough that it sent the entire company into administration, endangering the successful regional operation. It is still unclear what will happen to that, but that 737 operation is dead. Poor Rex, he was a good boy.
Tailwind (United States) – August 5
I sound like a broken record, but Tailwind still exists… as a charter airline. But its big experiment with seasonal float plane service in the Northeast US was shut down this year. It was a unique idea, offering service from Manhattan to Boston using these float planes, among other routes. But those airplanes were pretty slow, and they couldn’t operate at night, so it was already flying with one prop tied behind its back (which is a problem because its airplanes only had one prop). The idea seemed like it could have worked in theory, but in the end, it did not. Tailwind is still around if you have the money to charter for this experience. Otherwise, take the train or find an airport on land to get where you’re going.
Canada Jetlines (Canada) – August 15
Jetlines was the second ultra low cost carrier to fail in Canada this year, and this was the least surprising failure of the two. This is an airline that never seemed to figure out a reasonable plan, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. It actually hired Lukas Johnson to be CEO, but he left almost immediately to instead take on the role of Chief Commercial Officer for Breeze. He’s probably pretty glad he did that, because Jetlines topped out at four airplanes, and never gained any sort of footing. It did, however, cement itself as a major player in the Guyanese market, so that’s… something. I never really got it, but I also didn’t pay that much attention since it was so tiny.
OTT Airlines (China) – September 22
OTT actually stands for One Two Three, which apparently refers to Laozi’s three principles of Daoism. (I’ll just let you look that one up.) This airline was started up as a subsidiary of China Eastern, and it was merged back into the parent this year. So why do I even bother mentioning this flash in the pan? I just find it really amusing that the airline was effectively started by China Eastern to fly Chinese-built aircraft. It began with the ARJ21 and was going to take the C919, but it never got there. I just have to assume that the idea was something like, “oh man, what if those Chinese-built airplanes crash a lot? We can’t put our name on it. Let’s just make up a fake new airline instead.” But those airplanes didn’t fall out of the sky, so China Eastern must now be happy enough to bring them back in house.
AIX Connect (India) – October 1
You may not have heard of AIX Connect, but that’s because the airline was previously known as AirAsia India and didn’t use this name for long. This was originally a joint venture between Tata and AirAsia, but by 2022, it had been fully acquired by Tata. Remember, Tata also bought Air India, so what did it do? It renamed AirAsia India to AIX Connect as a temporary measure — I’m assuming it didn’t want to pay to keep using the AirAsia brand — until the airline could be merged into Air India’s low-fare Air India Express subsidiary. It flew under the AIX Connect brand only for 11 months before it was finally merged into Air India Express this year.
ČSA Czech Airlines (Czech Republic) – October 26
I’m not gonna hide it. This one makes me sadder than any other. It’s not often that an airline that made it to see 100 years ends up going under, but that is exactly what happened to Czech this year. To be fair, the airline was already a shell of its former self. The writing had been on the wall for years, as is the case for all smaller country flag carriers. But in 2018, it was bought by Smartwings. After several ownership maneuvers, Czech ended up only flying a couple of A320s, mostly to Paris. Smartwings decided to end the Czech brand and operating certificate in October, so now everything has been consolidated. The fifth oldest airline in the world is now gone, so let’s all raise a glass of Budvar in remembrance.
WestJet Link (Canada) – October 26
Let’s make sure that nobody thinks WestJet went under this year. It most certainly did not. But WestJet Link did, and… most people have no idea what that is. This was actually WestJet’s attempt to get into smaller cities in western Canada by contracting with Pacific Coastal Airlines. It flew Saab 340s to connect into WestJet’s Calgary and Vancouver operations. Flights operated to a handful of cities, including Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, and Lloydminster. I’ll bet one of those may even be a real place. But now, WestJet decided to break up with Pacific Coastal and move its subsidiary Encore’s Q400s into the cities it wanted to continue serving.
Vistara (India) – November 11
Remember the AIX Connect story? This is another airline that got caught up in the great Tata consolidation. Vistara was started as a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. It was built to be a more premium operation compared to the barebones AirAsia India. The airline attracted a good following and grew into a major player in the Indian market. But when Tata took over Air India, there was little doubt how this would play out. The decision was made to fold Vistara into Air India. I can only imagine that there was at least a fleeting thought to keep the Vistara name, but there’s no way that would be possible in a land where Air India will live forever.
Nordica/Xfly (Estonia) – November 20
Nordica was a regional jet operator that had airlines operating under a couple different names at various times. It was actually created to be the flag carrier of Estonia, but it never quite served that purpose very well. Instead, it partnered with others under wet leases for most of its business. At one point it flew under LOT Polish’s code, even sharing ownership of the subsidiary “Regional Jet” which was renamed as Xfly in 2020, because, well, what else did an airline have to do in 2020? It had several aircraft flying for SAS, and that was the airline’s bread and butter until the deal ended in November of this year. And that’s when Nordica went bankrupt and folded.
Tomb of the Unknown Airline Air Bucharest (Romania) Air Burkina (Burkina Faso) Albawings (Albania) Azman Air (Nigeria) bestfly Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) Céleste (France) Congo Airways (Congo) Eagle Air Iceland (Iceland) FlyArna (Armenia) FlyEgypt (Egypt) HumoAir (Uzbekistan) Int’Air Îles (Comoros) JetAir Caribbean (Curaçao) Lanmei Airlines (Cambodia) Nigeria Air (Nigeria) Olympus Airways (Greece) Queen Bilqis Airways (Yemen) Sherpa Air (United States) Taos Air (United States)
