Adria Airways has announced it has filed for bankruptcy proceedings and is ceasing its last remaining route with immediate effect.
The Slovenian flag-carrier ended most flight operations for what was initially meant to be a temporary two-day period on Monday evening last week. Shortly after, it confirmed that Adria is officially only keeping up flights on one single route, Ljubljana to Frankfurt, which were operated by German charter airline WDL Aviation over the past few days. These have now been cancelled as well due to the airline’s bankruptcy.
Contradictory to Adria’s initial statement, several other flights had also been carried out during the airline’s final days of operations. According to Flightradar24, the very last flight of the airline was JP3925 from Paris CDG to Ljubljana on Monday morning.
Over the past two weeks, and especially the past few days, most of Adria’s fleet had been repossessed by its lessors, essentially making a somewhat normal return to service impossible.
Previously, Adria Airways was in discussions for a rescue loan from the Slovenian government for what was reported to be four million Euros. The loan was denied, with the government commenting that it would be ‘a waste of money’.
Meanwhile, Slovenia’s Economy Minister said the government is considering to create a new airline to fill gaps in international connectivity of the country, that Adria Airways’ insolvency is leaving.
The 1961-founded airline was part of the Star Alliance and a close partner of German flag-carrier Lufthansa. Adria was operating a number of flights for the airline, both through code share agreements, as well as exclusive wet-leasing operations on some flights with a Lufthansa flight number. It even used ‘Miles & More’, the frequent flyer program of the Lufthansa Group. The German airline has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Adria Airways’ fleet consisted of Airbus A319, Bombardier CRJ regional jets and Saab 2000 turboprop aircraft. It employed more than 550 people. Since its privatisation in March 2016, it was owned by investment firm 4K Invest.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
