Small Planet Airlines Italia (Rome Fiumicino) has had its licensed revoked by the Italian civil aviation authority ENAC on January 17 due to the financial difficulties of the Italian operator. According to a statement by Small Planet Airlines Italia president Stefano Canessa published on the website of sister company Flyplanet (Milan Bergamo), all flights including FlyPlanet's scheduled services have been suspended effective January 20. FlyPlanet is offering full refunds to its customers and hopes to be able to resume operations again in the future. Lithuania's Small Planet Airlines (Vilnius) and its subsidiary Small Planet Airlines Polska (Warsaw Chopin) are not affected by the license revocation. According to a statement made by Small Planet Airlines CEO Vytautas Kaikaris to ch-aviation, Small Planet Airlines Italia is not owned by Small Planet Airlines. 64.5% of the Italian company are owned by Aeroservizi and 35.5% by Small Planet Airlines' former owner Avia Solutions Group. The Lithuanian ACMI and charter operator however had leased some of its B737-300s to Small Planet Airlines Italia (that was already preparing to rebrand given the different ownerships). According to Kaikaris, Small Planet Airlines now plans to use the B737-300 becoming available for charter services from the UK during the summer charter season.
By Thomas Jaeger
20Jan2014