Primera Air Scandinavia (Billund) and its Latvian sister carrier Primera Air Nordic (Riga) will cease all operations as of midnight, October 2, 2018, and enter into bankruptcy administration after parent firm Primera Travel Group failed to raise the funding needed for the airlines to continue flights.
"The company has been working relentlessly during the last months to secure the long-term financing of the airline. Not being able to reach an agreement with our bank for a bridge financing, we had no other choice than filing for bankruptcy," the Danish carrier's board said in a statement.
The airline said that among the factors that had contributed to its financial malaise was the loss of one aircraft in 2017 due to severe corrosion problems. The rebuilding alone cost it more than EUR10 million. Another key factor was severe delays in the delivery of its A321neo orders, which led to "operational issues, cancellations of a number of flights, and loss of revenue" during Summer 2018. As a result, Primera Air had to wet-lease in B757s and a B767 to offset the capacity deficit which cost it EUR20 million euros (USD23.1 million) alone.
"Weighing the potential losses due to future delivery delays, and the added exposure to our partners and lessors, and bearing in mind the difficult environment that airlines are facing now due to low prices and high fuel costs, we have decided to cease operations now, where it will have a smaller effect on our clients, due to the timing of the year, rather than increasing the exposure," it added.
Primera Air currently operates five A321neo and three B737-800s mostly on Mediterranean routes from Scandinavia, as well as transatlantic low-cost operations out of London Stansted and Paris CDG. Due to A321neo delivery delays, Primera Air was forced to wet-lease in two B757-200s from National Airlines (N8, Orlando Sanford) and a single B737-400 from GetJet Airlines (GW, Vilnius). Primera Air Nordic operates a further two B737-700s and five B737-800s on leisure routes from Scandinavian bases.
