Adria Airways is following Thomas Cook and suspended all flights today. German Condor may be next.
Slovenia-based Adria Airways said it would suspend all flights on Tuesday and Wednesday due to โunsecured access to fresh cash which the airline needs for further flight operationsโ.
Adria’s corporate headquarters are located on the grounds of Ljubljana Airportย inย Zgornji Brnik,ย Cerklje na Gorenjskem,ย Slovenia, nearย Ljubljana.
โThe company is at this point intensively searching solutions in cooperation with a potential investor. The goal of everyone involved is to make Adria Airways fly again,โ it said in a statement late on Monday.
Slovenia had sold Adria to German investment fund 4K Invest in 2016. Since then the company sold all its planes and was using leased planes to fly to several European destinations.
In March 2016, 4K Invest, aย Luxembourg-basedย restructuringย fund, acquired 96% of Adria Airways’ shares from the Slovene state.ย The new owner appointed Arno Schuster as theย CEOย of Adria.
On the 1st of July 2017, Adria suspended its base in the Polish city ofย ลรณdลบ, from which it held flights with its stationedย CRJ700ย aircraft, registered S5-AAZ, for the previous three years. During this time, Adria had also opened two other bases in Poland, one inย Rzeszรณwย and one inย Olsztyn; however, both were terminated fairly quickly. Adria is now set to focus more on its main hub on Ljubljana Airport, which has already seen a boost in the frequencies of flights to a couple of destinations served by Adria. These destinations includeย Amsterdam,ย Podgorica,ย Pristina,ย Sarajevoย andย Skopje.
On 20 July 2017, Adria announced the purchase ofย Darwin Airline, which operates flights as Etihad Regional and was owned byย Etihad Airways. The airline will market itself as Adria Airways Switzerland, but continue its operations asย Darwin Airlineย with the existing air operator’s certificate (AOC). Adria will be responsible for marketing and some administrative and operational tasks. However, as of now, this won’t directly impact the airline’s operations as a whole, as the two bases will remain in Genevaย andย Lugano.
In September 2017, it was revealed that Adria sold its brand for 8 million Euros to an undisclosed buyer in December of the previous year.
In November 2017, Adria announced new flights from theย Swissย city ofย Bern, which came as a result ofย SkyWork Airlines, previously the largest operator out ofย Belp Airport, losing itsย AOC. The flights toย Berlin,ย Hamburg,ย Munichย andย Viennaย were set to begin on November 6, 2017, and were to be operated by the subsidiaryย Adria Airways Switzerland, however, these plans were cancelled only days after the announcement, as SkyWorkย managed to regain itsย AOC.
In recent years, Adria has focused onย ad hoc flights, which are mainly operated for large automotive companies, such asย Ford,ย Chryslerย andย Ferrari.
On 12 December 2017, Adria’s Swiss subsidiaryย Darwin Airline, which operated asย Adria Airways Switzerland, was declaredย bankruptย and its AOC was revoked. The airline ended all operations.[37]
In January 2019, Adria Airways announced it would shut down its short-lived focus city operations atย Paderborn Lippstadt Airportย inย Germanyย which consisted of three routes toย Londonย (which had already ceased in late 2018),ย Viennaย andย Zรผrich.ย In the same time, major cuts to its route network from the airline’s home base in Ljubljana have been published with all services to Braฤ, Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Dรผsseldorf, Geneva, Hamburg, Kiev, Moscow and Warsaw being terminated.
WHAT TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS ARTICLE:
- Adria is now set to focus more on its main hub on Ljubljana Airport, which has already seen a boost in the frequencies of flights to a couple of destinations served by Adria.
- On the 1st of July 2017, Adria suspended its base in the Polish city ofย ลรณdลบ, from which it held flights with its stationedย CRJ700ย aircraft, registered S5-AAZ, for the previous three years.
- The flights toย Berlin,ย Hamburg,ย Munichย andย Viennaย were set to begin on November 6, 2017, and were to be operated by the subsidiaryย Adria Airways Switzerland, however, these plans were cancelled only days after the announcement, as SkyWorkย managed to regain itsย AOC.