Along with the high-profile collapse of airlines such as Spirit Airlines and Mexico’s Magnicharters, a number of airlines that have not operated for several years were officially shut down in the last few months.
At the start of the week, Spanish airline Air Nostrum made the decision to dissolve both the Irish regional carrier Hibernian Airlines and the Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines holdings company (Hibernian Airlines stopped flying in 2024 after the parent company merged with its Irish competitor CityJet).
Finnish airline Jetflite shut down all of its charter operations at the start of July after entering legal discussions for winding down the business two months earlier in May. Amid initial plans to launch a regional airline based out of the Italian island of Sicily hit multiple financial problems, shareholders voted voted to dissolve and liquidate Aerolinee Siciliane before operations could begin at the start of July as well.
Ellinair officially in bankruptcy after several years of back and forth
Ellinair, a Greek regional airline established in 2013 by travel agency owner Boris Mouzenidis, initially established its business selling charter flights to various Greek islands from the country’s mainland as well as certain cities in Russia and Ukraine through a leased mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing planes.
When the covid-19 pandemic shut down international travel in 2020, the airline could not emerge from both the sudden dropoff in business and sudden death of its founder; it stopped running flights and shut down operations in 2021. Prior to this, it had received a pandemic-related Greek government aid package of €6.8 million.
Related: Another airline cancels flights until August, offers some refunds
With several investors initially expressing interest in restarting the airline as an ACMI provider and the owners trying to stave off bankruptcy by presenting this interest in court, formal bankruptcy process was put off until this July when the Thessaloniki Court of Appeals accepted a long-running petition to declare the airline bankrupt by former employees.
As reported by local news outlet Greek City Times, Thessaloniki lawyer Georgios Goundelias was appointed as the insolvency administrator and ordered the sealing of the company assets as the next step in the process.
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Why it has taken all this time for Ellinair to be declared bankrupt
The status was entered into Greece’s General Commercial Registry on July 22 and puts the final kibosh on any hopes of the airline resuming flights following a restructuring.
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Some other airlines that filed for bankruptcy protection in 2026:
- Spirit Airlines: The largest airline shutdown of the year occurred when Spirit Airlines canceled all remaining flights on May 2. Although the airline had filed for Chapter 11 protection twice before, the skyrocketing price of jet fuel dealt the final blow to its operations.
- Magnicharters: In a shutdown that was initially supposed to be temporary, the Mexican low-cost airline ended up filing for bankruptcy at the end of May.
- Starflite Aviation: Houston-based Starflite Aviation had its AOC license revoked in March 2026, amid FAA claims that owners falsified pilot training records to bypass safety audits.
- AlpAvia: Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia also shut down in March 2026 over financial problems.
- H-Bird: Charter airline H-Bird was declared bankrupt by a Swedish judge after losing its operating license at the end of 2025.
Related: Another airline will be dissolved, all flights canceled
