Slovenia-based Adria Airways said on Tuesday it would suspend all flights on Tuesday and Wednesday except for a connection to Frankfurt due to “unsecured access to fresh cash which the airline needs for further flight operations”.
“The company is at this point intensively searching solutions in cooperation with a potential investor. The goal of everyone involved is to make Adria Airways fly again,” it said in a statement.
The collapse of travel group Thomas Cook this week has rippled through Europe’s travel sector, with smaller airlines coming under more pressure. So far this year Germania, Flybmi and Iceland’s WOW have failed, while regional operator Flybe’s sale to a Virgin Atlantic-led consortium has narrowly averted its collapse.
It added it will operate a flight from Frankfurt to Ljubljana on Tuesday and a flight from Ljubljana to Frankfurt on Wednesday, saying Frankfurt was its “most important hub”.
It had cancelled some 50 regular and charter flights in two days to and from Netherlands, Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Austria, Kosovo and Greece, potentially affecting more than 4,000 passengers according to Reuters estimate.
Adria was not available to give further details.
Slovenia had sold Adria to German investment fund 4K Invest in 2016. Since then the company sold all its planes and was using leased planes to fly to several European destinations.
“The company deeply regrets the situation and apologizes to all its passengers and partners,” Adria added.
Slovenian officials have said Adria cannot receive state aid as that would be against European Union rules.
