Adria Airways, the Slovenian flag carrier, has suspended operations following an acute shortage of operating funds. The airline actually only plans to stop operating for a short period until Thursday, whilst it awaits more cash to enter the company.

Who is Adria Airways?

Adria Airways is a privately owned Slovenian airline. It flies to 18 destinations with a fleet of 20 small regional aircraft (three Airbus A319-100s, two Bombardier CRJ700ERs, nine Bombardier CRJ900LRs, and six Saab 2000s). It is a member of Star Alliance and shares the Lufthansa frequent flyer program.

The airline's home base is in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The airline flies as far as Manchester and Copenhagen in the north (with plans to fly to Liverpool next year), and as far south as Albania. It previously operated to more destinations but problems with the airline resulted in a 'collapse' of routes.

What is going on with the airline?

This pause in trading is only the tip of the iceberg with the issues that have plagued this airline. The issues seemed to stem from the privatization of the company back in 2016, by the firm 4K. Their relentless push for more profitability resulted in the closure of routes and subsidiaries.

Just last year, before Christmas, the airline closed its operations in Germany (Paderborn Lippstadt Airport), putting the nail in the coffin for any route revival to London. It also closed routes to the following cities: Brač, Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Hamburg, Kiev, Moscow, and Warsaw.

The currently dire financial situation led an aircraft lessor to repossess three aircraft from Adria Airways last week. But it seems like this was not enough, with the airline declaring cash flow problems and a 'pause' in trading. The airline sought an emergency loan of four million Euros which was subsequently denied by the Slovenian government.

"[Adria Airways] 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 and that ceasing of operations is indeed temporarily." - Adria Airways to International Flight Network.

What do I do if I have booked with Adria Airways?

As of right now, the airline has canceled all flights for the 24th and 25th of September.

If you have booked with the airline, you are advised to simply get in touch with your ticket provider for details. This is not much help if you have booked directly with the airline but we hope they will be able to honor all the tickets.

Following the suspension of Thomas Cook (which may begin trading again soon), this news is a worrying trend for the European aviation industry due to go into yet another cold winter.

What do you think of this news? Will the airline be able to survive? Let us know in the comments.