Braathens Regional Airlines will tomorrow suspend all of its flights until the start of June. The airline was attempting to keep services going but new government guidelines have left the airline with no traveling customers. The Swedish airline is allowing affected customers to rebook tickets or receive a refund.
Braathens Regional cut its schedule in March
For a couple of weeks now, Braathens Regional Airlines has been slowly chipping away at its network offering in order to facilitate reduced demand for travel. The airline, which is headquartered in Bromma, Stockholm, announced a temporary termination of some of its regional routes on 23rd March.
At that time, the following routes were the only ones affected:
- Stockholm Bromma - Ronneby
- Stockholm Bromma - Kristianstad
- Stockholm Bromma - Kalmar / Öland
- Stockholm Bromma - Växjö
- Stockholm Bromma - Halmstad
- Stockholm Bromma - Trollhättan
- Stockholm Bromma - Sundsvall
- Visby - Gothenburg
- Visby - Malmö.
All of the above routes are domestic. However, now the coronavirus situation in Sweden is such that passengers have been discouraged from making unnecessary travel. Therefore, the airline has further cut its network.
Swedish citizens should avoid all unnecessary travel
From tomorrow, Braathens Regional Airlines will suspend all its routes until 31st May inclusive. Its 19 remaining routes will now be suspended. Among them are nine international services.
The news of the operational termination at Braathens Regional Airlines does not come easy. In its latest press release, it seemed to be with a heavy heart that the air carrier pressed pause. In the statement, the airline said:
"We at [Braathens Regional Airlines] have done everything we can to maintain our air traffic for Sweden and for our customers. In the past week, we have struggled with only a few flights, but due to the Government's and the Public Health Authority's strong call for the Swedish population not to travel inland, we do not have any customers left who fly with us and therefore need to further adapt our traffic to the new conditions...therefore [we have] decided to pause all our flights between April 6 and May 31...we gather strength and really want to thank all of you who are struggling and believe in us."
Of course, due to Braathens Regional's temporary suspension, there will be certain customers left with canceled travel plans. As a gesture of goodwill, the airline will still be offering customers refunds on their tickets. However, at this time for the airline, it is most preferable that the customers take advantage of Braathen's rebooking system.
Who is Braathens Regional Airlines?
Braathens Regional Airlines is a Swedish airline with a Norwegian owner. It operates its flights through its two sister airlines: Braathens Regional Airways and Braathens Regional Aviation. In this setup, Braathens Regional Airlines is able to offer five international destinations and 16 different airports in and around Sweden.
The airline is relatively young, founded in 2016, but has a robust fleet of 20 aircraft with six more orders in place. Braathens Regional Airlines operates four aircraft, including ATR 72-500, ATR 72-600, Fokker 50 and Embraer 190. The airline's last British Aerospace ‘Avro’ RJ85 and RJ100 airplanes were retired last month.
In terms of aircraft, all 12 ATR 72-600 are stored at Ängelholm Helsingborg Airport, ESTA/AGH. Two ATR 72-500 are stored at Örebro Airport, ESOE/ORB and will not return to the airline. The Fokker 50 and Embraer 190 are wet-lease aircraft from Amapola Flyg and WDL Aviation (German Airways), so will be returned to the lessors.
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