Small Planet Airlines Germany to restructure, continue operating services

Small Planet Airlines Group announced (18-Sep-2018) a restructuring of Small Planet Airlines Germany and the subsequent insolvency filing for the subsidiary. The group said the German Civil Aviation Authority has "no objections that the Air Operator's Licence will remain in place and therefore, all scheduled services of Small Planet Airlines GmbH will continue to operate". Small Planet Airlines Germany has been operating as an independent entity in Germany since 2015 and acquired an AOC in spring 2016. Small Planet Airlines Germany stated its rapid expansion in 2018 "didn't go according to plan". Small Planet Group CEO Vytautas Kaikaris said: "After Air Berlin went bankrupt last year, a niche emerged for the other carriers, and Small Planet Airlines Germany chose to almost double in size year on year in order to take advantage of these newly opened possibilities in the market... However, the company struggled to manage this successfully due to several factors... late delivery of aircraft before the start of the summer season, shortage of crews in the market, unreliable sub charter aircraft and unforeseeable technical events had a devastating impact on a very intense schedule, which led to flight irregularities which in turn led to increasing cost burden". Small Planet Group's fleet consists of 29 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft, with the group expecting to handle 3.9 million passengers by the end of 2018, an increase of 29% year-on-year. [more - original PR]