Cobalt Air ceases operations, all flights grounded

Cobalt Air A319 — Photo: © Gerard van der Schaaf

Cypriot airline Cobalt Air has suspended all flight operations at midnight on Wednesday, October 17. It was unable to reach a deal with ‘potential European investors’. Cobalt Air also missed several lease payments earlier this month. The remaining 15 million Euros in its accounts will be used to pay its employees.

Cobalt Air has released released a statement on its website:

Cobalt regrets to announce that it will be cancelling all Flights as of 23:50pm [Cyprus time] on October 17, 2018 due to indefinite suspension of Cobalt’s operations. As a result, future flights or services provided by Cobalt will be cancelled and will no longer operate.

Passengers who have un-flown tickets are instructed not to go to Larnaca Airport or any departure airport tomorrow, 18 October 2018 as no Cobalt flights will operate and no Cobalt staff will be present.Cobalt Air

The start-up airline was founded in 2015 and began operations in 2016, shortly after Cyprus Airways, the country’s long-time flag carrier, shut down.

Cobalt Air then quickly became Cyprus’ largest airline, in the end operating two Airbus A319 and four A320 aircraft on mostly inner European routes.