Skift Take
Wow Air’s failure stranded passengers all over its route network and got quite a lot of attention because of its role in Iceland’s tourism success story. But it’s got company — check out the list of airlines that have folded in just the last 12 months. Aviation is a tough business.
Add Wow Air to a long — and growing — list of airline failures around the world. Like Primera Air before it and perhaps Norwegian before long, the Icelandic carrier was a victim of intense fare competition on transatlantic routes. In general, airlines that have perished in the last year have been small, lacking the scale and capital resources to endure through competitive battles, fuel shocks, and other challenges. The last big airlines to collapse were Air Berlin and Monarch in 2017. (A few others, like Flybe in the UK, were headed for collapse before being rescued through takeovers.)
| Recent Airline Failures | Launch Date | Date of Failure | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wow Air | 2012 | Mar-19 | Iceland |
| Germania | 1978 | Feb-19 | Germany |
| Flybmi | 1987 | Feb-19 | U.K. |
| Insel Air | 2006 | Feb-19 | Curaçao |
| California Pacific | 2018 | Jan-19 | U.S. |
| PrivatAir | 1977 | Dec-18 | Switzerland |
| Small Planet | 2008 | Nov-18 | Lithuania |
| Cobalt | 2016 | Oct-18 | Cyprus |
| Primera Air | 2009 | Oct-18 | Denmark |
| Cello | 2009 | Oct-18 | UK |
| Shaheen | 1994 | Oct-18 | Pakistan |
| Auzr Air | 2017 | Sep-18 | Germany |
| Wataniya Airways | 2017 | Sep-18 | Kuwait |
| SkyWork | 1983 | Aug-18 | Switzerland |
| VLM | 1992 | Aug-18 | Belgium |
| OneJet | 2015 | Aug-18 | U.S. |
| NextJet | 2002 | May-18 | Sweden |
| Aserca | 1968 | May-18 | Venezuela |
| Saratov Airlines | 1931 | May-18 | Russia |
| Air Arabia Jordan | 2015 | Apr-18 | Jordan |
| SBA Airlines | 1997 | Apr-18 | Venezuela |
Senior Editor Andrew Sheivachman contributed to this report.
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Photo credit: Wow Air joins a growing list of airlines that have gone defunct this past year. Wow Air