Citywing (Isle of Man) has announced that it has ceased all operations and filed for liquidation as of Friday, March 11, 2017.
The Manx virtual carrier said in a statement that it had incurred heavy losses chartering in outside capacity in the wake of the UK Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) decision to suspend its technical partner VAN AIR Europe's permits in late February. The move followed an operational incident on Thursday, February 23, which raised concerns at the regulator about the Czech operator's safety protocols.
"The company has tried to offer a service whilst suffering considerable losses but these have proved unfortunately to be commercially unsustainable," it said. "It is therefore with much sadness and deep regret that the Directors of Citywing Aviation Services Limited have had to take the difficult decision to close the company today and put the company into liquidation. This decision has not been taken lightly and has been made to protect creditors."
A liquidator is to be appointed in due course.
Citywing was founded in 2006 as Manx2 (Isle of Man) before rebranding in 2012. Until late February, it had used chartered VAN Air Europe Let 410 capacity to connect Isle of Man with Belfast City, Blackpool, Glasgow International, Gloucestershire, and Newcastle, GB as well as Anglesey with Cardiff. Since then, it has used a variety of other aircraft including a B737-300(QC) chartered from Titan Airways, a Metroliner from North Flying, and a Saab 340A from SprintAir.
The Isle of Man's Department of Infrastructure has announced that it is working to secure a new operator for the key routes lost following Citywing's demise.
