It seems it’s the week for airlines to collapse – this time – Flyr of Norway that will be filing for bankruptcy.
In a statement on their site, Flyr stated:
Flyr was unsuccessful with the new financial plan and the board concluded on Tuesday evening that there are no alternatives for further operation. The company will file for bankruptcy on Wednesday morning. Flyr has now ceased trading and all flights are cancelled and will not be rescheduled.
Many thanks to everyone who has chosen to fly with us over the past year and a half. We will miss you all from the bottom of our hearts and deeply apologize to everyone affected by the fact that we now have to go in for landing.We encourage everyone who has booked a ticket with us to contact their credit card company for a refund.
The bankruptcy trustee will take over all responsibility for Flyr going forward, and will share contact information on www.flyr.com as soon as it becomes available.
In the regulatory filing, they added:
The board of directors of the Company (the “Board”) has today decided to file for bankruptcy at Oslo city court, and will file for bankruptcy tomorrow, 1 February 2023. The board’s decision is unanimous and is due to the fact that there is no longer a realistic opportunity to achieve a solution for the short-term liquidity situation.
All departures and ticket sales have as a consequence been cancelled and ticket sales discontinued.
Flyr was founded in August 2020, with the first flights commencing on 30 June 2021. It survived 19 months before falling under financial pressure and a lack of short-term liquidity that would have kept the airline running.
At its peak, the airline operated six Boeing 737-800 and six Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft.
Shaking out business models
We should be grateful in some respects that Flyr gave more than a few hour’s notice before it was going to collapse. However, there will be travellers impacted by this, as they now scramble to rebook to travel if they can.
Flyr has been scrambling around for money since its inception. It sees that the business model for this airline has run out of time when it tried to compete with Norwegian, Ryanair, Easyjet and so on, whilst being unable to strengthen its network and balance sheet.
When it cut its schedule by half in Winter last year, it wasn’t a good sign – and even if it managed to secure a charter contract a few days before it filed for bankruptcy.
For now, these aircraft will be looking for new homes. And staff will also have to find new jobs.
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