Istanbul based Turkish carrier AtlasGlobal has stopped selling tickets for its scheduled flights for the second time in recent weeks.

Who is AtlasGlobal?

AtlasGlobal was founded back in 2001 as Atlasjet International Airlines, as a charter and scheduled regional carrier around Turkey.

It has a route network that spans across to local countries such as Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Armenia, and Cyprus, as well as international routes to London's Stansted Airport, Amsterdam's Airport Schiphol and Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Its fleet is made up of five aircraft: two Airbus A330-200s, and three Airbus A321-200s. It previously had a bigger fleet with a Boeing 757, Boeing 747-400, an A320-200 and A319-100. The latter two were retired this year.

However, the airline has been struggling with financial difficulties and had to cancel all scheduled flights on the 26th of November, 2019. Charter flights did not stop during this time.

A statement released to media in November read as follows:

“We regret to inform you that we had to suspend all our flights as of November 26, 2019 until December 16, 2019 in order to provide the necessary configuration and improvement in our cash flow. All operational processes that will be carried out within the company by this date will be carried out with a minimum number of personnel and the personnel will be determined by the unit managers and will be informed by telephone this evening."

On the 16th of December, the airline seemed to rebound and restarted all of its routes. CH-Aviation wrote an article last year that the airline had "revised business plan will see it focus more on charters as opposed to scheduled flights. It did not disclose which routes would be dropped as part of the adjustment." 

However... it seems that what affected the airline the first time has hit again, with the airline canceling long-haul routes.

What are the details of the second cancelation?

The above tweet from Turkish Air News translated below:

We have heard that @Atlasglobal has stopped selling tickets to Amsterdam, London and Paris flights as of tomorrow.

We follow developments.

According to the information we received from the passengers, Atlasglobal, who sent the message "Your ticket has been canceled due to tariff change", cancels many flights, including domestic and international flights.

The airline has apparently stopped selling any ticket for long-haul flights leaving for Europe and canceled any future tickets.

Why has this happened?

Before we start adding AtlasGlobal to a growing list of failed airlines, we should consider the alternative possibility.

There is a chance that the airline has decided to give up its long haul aspirations and focus entirely on the seemingly more profitable business of charter travel. As when the airline shut down back in November, aircraft charters seemed to be consistent and a revenue driver for the airline.

Expensive landing slots like Paris and Amsterdam can be sold to other airlines and add a nice chunk of change to the companies bottom line.

What do you think about this news? Is the airline about to go bust or are they just pivoting their business? Let us know in the comments.