Swedish carrier NextJet files for bankruptcy

By May 18, 2018 January 16th, 2020 General News

The Swedish regional airline NextJet has applied for bankruptcy and cancelled all flights as of Wednesday 16 May at 1pm.

In a statement NextJet said: “We regret the situation. Pending the appointment of a receiver and may make decisions on the future of the company; customers who have booked a journey with NextJet are referred to their travel agency.” The airline’s customer services will also be closed until further notice.

The airline went into bankruptcy on 17 May, with Lars-Henrik Andersson from the law firm Lindahl appointed as the administrator.

The Swedish carrier’s aim was to “make the long distances from North to South a little shorter by effectively connecting many parts of the country” using 14 aircraft, including 10 Saab 340 and four British Aerospace ATP aircraft, used to serve 20 destinations in Scandinavia.

NextJet operated routes under a public service from Hemavan, Vilhelmina, Lycksele, Gällivare and Arvidsjaur to Arlanda/Stockholm. The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is now investigating the possibilities of resuming air traffic on these routes affected by the public service obligations.

“The situation is deeply unfortunate, but we are now working to get a solution,” said Anna Fällbom, head of traffic agreements and transport network at Trafikverket. The Swedish Transport Agency has previously commenced a new procurement for air traffic Arvidsjaur – Stockholm/Arlanda.

Following the application for bankruptcy, the Swedish Transport Agency has revoked the company’s operating licence.

The last year has seen some issues for the airline, as on 17 August 2017 the Transport Agency revoked the company’s operating licence and issued a temporary licence due to concerns over the airline’s financial situation.

After the airline implemented measures to address the “difficult financial situation”, the Transport Agency granted NextJet a new operating licence on 30 October 2017.

Image: By Anna Zvereva from Tallinn, Estonia (NextJet, SE-KXJ, Saab 340B) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons