Europe's first COVID-19 airline exits: LEVEL Europe/SunExpress Germany

When the UK regional airline Flybe folded on 5-Mar-2020, it cited COVID-19 as a contributory factor. However, this was before lockdown and travel restrictions were imposed in the UK and across Europe. Airline seat capacity in Europe that week was still at 98.2% of last year's levels.

Four weeks later, seat capacity had disintegrated to 21.6%. For much of Apr-2020 and May-2020, capacity hovered around 10% of 2019 levels and has picked up only to 20.3% in the week of 22-Jun-2020.

Three other airlines went bust before Flybe in 2020. However, given the profound collapse of demand for air travel, it is remarkable that no other European airline ceased operations until the second half of Jun-2020. Even then, there have been only two: LEVEL Europe and SunExpress Deutschland, both owned by major parent groups. The Irish regional wet lease operator CityJet has been under creditor protection since Apr-2020, but has not ceased trading.

The survival rate of European airlines in the depths of the crisis has been boosted by state aid and growing debt. Survival in the recovery phase will depend on the uncertainties of demand and revenue returning at the same pace as the more certain capacity and cost.