Last year, an influx of airlines came near the store when the pandemic forced travelers to stay home.
All 11 major U.S. airlines remained intact, but smaller regional providers were forced to close or merge due to declining travel demand.
Not everyone was due to the pandemic, as the first two months of the year closed speeches due to increasing losses.
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Every year a small number of airlines keep close to the store for various reasons, but last year had the pandemic to accelerate some.
A surprise announcement in February that the promising Air Italy-backed Air Italy, which is being liquidated by Qatar Airways, delivered the stage for a year of losses, even before the airlines dropped the world’s airlines. And although the coronavirus was already known at the time, its destructive power in the airline industry had yet to be realized.
In the US, all 11 major airlines remained intact, but smaller regional carriers folded amid an unprecedented decline in passengers that remained low even in the new year. Three carriers operating flights on behalf of larger vessels have both closed their stores after they were no longer required by the majors. It has cost thousands of jobs in the industry amid an already difficult period of planning.
Brett Snyder of aviation blog CrankyFlyer’s annual list of “airlines we lost” that reveals how many people did not see the new year.
Read more: 5 maps show how badly the loss of business travel is hurting America’s largest airlines – and why a COVID-19 vaccine will not ease the pain
Here are the most important airlines we said goodbye to in 2020.
Compass Airlines
An American Eagle Embraer E175 local aircraft.
Philip Pilosian / Shutterstock.com
According to FlightGlobal, Compass Airlines was a local airline that ceased operations in April 2020 after terminating operations with American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The Minneapolis-based airline has in recent years flown mainly the Embraer E175 aircraft with bases on the West Coast.
ExpressJet Airlines
A United Express Embraer ERJ145 operated by ExpressJet Airlines.
Marc Seguin / Shutterstock.com
ExpressJet Airlines was a local airline that went on strike on September 30, 2020 after United Airlines chose rival CommutAir to fly regional services. Major airlines such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and recently United Airlines have contracted the airline to fly its local hubs to smaller cities.
One pilot who flew for ExpressJet described the airline to Insider to the end as reliable and professional and earned the nickname “SureJet”.
“We were the small airline that could,” Colin Crane, a former ExpressJet pilot, told Insider in a previous interview.
An independent airline sold its own tickets and flew its own routes, but rising oil prices put an end to the plan at the time.
Ernest
An Airbus from Ernest Airbus.
Real_life_Studio / Shutterstock.com
The Italian Ernest has suspended its operations within two weeks until 2020 after only five years of service, reports AirlineGeeks. The carrier served mainly European destinations with a fleet of four Airbus aircraft.
AtlasJet
An AtlasGlobal Airbus aircraft.
Bogac Erkan / Shutterstock.com
The Turkish airline AtlasGlobal ceased operations in February 2020 after having just resumed operations after a challenging economic environment in its home country, according to FlightGlobal. The airline operated flights within the Middle East and Europe with an Airbus fleet.
Trans States Airlines
An Embraer aircraft from Trans States Airlines.
Carlos Yudica / Shutterstock.com
Trans States Airlines was a local airline that flew Embraer ERJ145 services for United Airlines. While it originally planned to halt operations by the end of 2020, after consolidating operations with ExpressJet Airlines, the pandemic saw the airline go on strike on April 1, as Insider David Slotnick reports.
Its parent company, Trans States Holdings, was also the parent company of Compass Airlines.
Air Italy
A Boeing 737 Max 8 from Air Italy.
Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock.com
Air Italy was an Italian airline reborn in 2018 under new ownership and strong support from Qatar Airways. The airline was able to trace its routes to the 1960s and flew under the Meridiana brand from the early 2000s to its new brand.
Meridiana and the former Air Italy have jointly created an airline to compete with Alitalia. The first new intercontinental flight launched in June 2018 from Milan to New York with subsequent expansions across the US and Canada.
Operations were finally halted in February 2020, as the first year suffered huge losses, as David Slotnick of Insider reported. The Boeing 737 Max grounding also cost the airline because it relied on the aircraft for its European route network.
Flybe
A Flybe plane in Faro, Portugal.
Fabrizio Gandolfo / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
Flybe was an independent local airline in the UK that ceased operations in March 2020 due to the pandemic, as reported by the New York Times. The airline served the farthest and darkest parts of the British Isles, especially cities avoided by major landline service providers.
A group of companies, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital, bought the airline in 2019, the Times reports, but that could not stop the airline from going down.
Germanwings
Germanwings planes take off at Cologne-Bonn airport on October 16, 2014. German pilots at Lufthansa’s low-cost unit Germanwings strike on Thursday, forcing the cancellation of 100 flights – or about a fifth of its services – if ‘ a dispute over an early retirement scheme is dragging on.
REUTERS / Ina Fassbende
Germanwings was one of the low-cost carriers of the Lufthansa group that went on strike in April 2020 due to the pandemic, as reported by Reuters. The Lufthansa group started this airline as a way to compete with Ryanair and EasyJet, which offered incredibly low fares for flights across the continent.
The airline suffered a massive disaster in public relations when a co-pilot committed suicide by crashing a plane during a flight from Spain to Germany in 2015, killing everyone on board.
SA Express
A SA Express Dash 8 aircraft.
Grant Duncan Smith / Shutterstock.com
SA Express was an independent local airline in South Africa that was operational in May 2020 due to the pandemic, as AirlineGeeks reported. The airline went bankrupt in February 2020.
Tame
A TAME Airbus A319 aircraft.
Thiago B Trevisan / Shutterstock.com
Tame was the flag bearer of Ecuador and ceased operations in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Routesonline reported. During his tenure, the carrier flew within Latin America and North America.
Makani Kai
A Cessna 208 from Mokulele Airlines.
Philip Pilosian / Shutterstock.com
According to the Star Advertiser, Makani Kai was a Hawaiian commuter airline that merged with Mokulele Air in June 2020. Both airlines merged as the pandemic closed traffic with Hawaii at the time largely to tourists.
Shallow
A LEVEL Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
Santi Rodriguez / Shutterstock.com
Level was a low-cost airline that ended its operations in June and July 2020. The airline was initially founded by the International Airlines group to compete against Transatlantic and intra-European routes such as Norwegian and Wow Air.
Flights were operated from Barcelona and Paris to cities in Europe and across the Atlantic to the Americas. Both the European and trans-Atlantic divisions of the airline went on strike due to the pandemic, as FlightGlobal reported.
NokScoot
A Nokscoot Boeing 777 aircraft.
Pradpriew / Shutterstock.com
NokScoot was a Thai airline that, as reported by the Bangkok Post, went on strike in June 2020, citing the aftermath of the pandemic. The six-year-old airline was the result of a partnership between Scoot and Nok Airlines.
LIAT
A LIAT turboprop aircraft.
Markus Mainka / Shutterstock.com
LIAT was a regional airline in the Caribbean that went on strike in July 2020 due to the pandemic after connecting the region’s islands for years, reports the Caymanian Times. Premier Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda said the airline had put losses ahead of the pandemic and hoped a replacement airline backed by the Caribbean government would emerge.
Cathay Dragon
A Cathay Dragon Airbus A330-300.
Sudpoth Sirirattanasakul / Shutterstock.com
Cathay Dragon was a local airline in Hong Kong that went on strike in October 2020. The operations were restructured under the Cathay Pacific Group with Cathay Pacific Airways.
Laudamotion
A Lauda Airbus A320.
LEONHARD FOEGER / Reuters
According to AirlineGeeks, the Austrian Laudamotion was a European airline that went on strike in 2020 to form a new airline, Lauda Europe. It was formed by Formula One manager Niki Lauda and is owned by the Ryanair group to offer cheap flights across Europe.
Austral
An Australian Embraer E190.
Majority World / Universal Images Group / Getty
Argentina’s Austral ceased to exist on December 1, 2020 after a merger with the country’s flag carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, according to AirlineGeeks. The carrier was established in 1971 and provided regional services in Argentina and neighboring countries.
German airline
A German airway Embraer E190.
Markus Mainka / Shutterstock.com
According to CH Aviation, German Airways was a charter airline that went on strike in April 2020 due to the pandemic. The carrier supplied 15 aircraft to Lufthansa Group’s Eurowings, including the Dash 8-400.
Montenegro Airlines was a European airline that ceased operations in December 2020 after the government stopped providing funding, the Associated Press reported. The flag carrier operates only regional services within the mainland without overseas flights beyond the mainland.
