While the high costs of aviation will regularly take down even established carriers, some airlines run to the ground financially before they even take off.
Envisioned as the world’s first zero-emission regional airline by British green investor Dale Vince, Ecojet Airlines entered voluntary liquidation, or the British equivalent of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in January 2026.
In July 2026, shareholders of what was supposed to be a new low-cost regional Italian airline called Aerolinee Siciliane voted to dissolve and liquidate before operations could begin due to high expenses and challenges securing the necessary approvals.
Dutch hydro-electric airplane developer Maeve Aerospace was also recently declared insolvent by a Dutch court.
Fischer Air insolvent and not running any flights: Report
Fischer Air, a Czech airline that operated between 1996 and 2005 with a fleet of three Boeing 737-300 planes, has been in the midst of the early stages of a revival as a vacation airline that would fly to the Spanish island of Mallorca from cities in Germany, Czechia and Slovakia.
The Mediterranean island is a popular holiday destination for Europeans while Czech-German entrepreneur Václav Fischer, who was behind the original brand, re-registered it in 2024 and had initiated the process for obtaining an operating license.
While several German consumers had warned that Fischer Air was selling tickets to Mallorca before it had obtained an operating license earlier this year, the latest reporting out of the country is that the airline is now fully insolvent.
Attempts to file for bankruptcy protection had reportedly been rejected by a court in Hamburg over “Mangels Masse,” a German legal term that means a company lacks the necessary assets to cover the litigation process.
What is happening with Fischer Air, an airline that promised but never delivered flights to Mallorca
Early reports also state that the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against Fischer over flights that were sold but repeatedly pushed back throughout 2025 and 2026. The last date that the airline set for flights to launch of airports such as Kassel-Calden (KDF) and Friedrichshafen (FDH) was in October 2026.
It is also not clear whether the revived airline had any aircraft to run the flights it was selling.
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The prosecutor’s office is now alleging commercial fraud while a website that advertised the airline and sold tickets has been scrubbed from the internet.
A Fischer Air Instagram page is still up but provides no information on the state of the company; a representative could not be immediately reached for comment.
Airlines that shut down or filed for bankruptcy in 2026:
- Spirit Airlines: The largest airline shutdown of the year occurred when Spirit Airlines canceled all remaining flights on May 2. Although the airline had filed for Chapter 11 protection twice before, the skyrocketing price of jet fuel dealt the final blow to its operations.
- Magnicharters: The Mexican low-cost airline canceled all of its flights and eventually shut down in a collapse that left thousands stranded.
- Starflite Aviation: Houston-based Starflite Aviation had its AOC license revoked in March 2026, amid FAA claims that owners falsified pilot training records to bypass safety audits.
- AlpAvia: Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia also shut down in March 2026 over financial problems.
