With the economy still in a downturn, the second half of 2025 ended up dealing the final blow to a number of small and in some cases flag carrier airlines.

In September 2025, Malmö-based Braathens Aviation filed for bankruptcy in Swedish court over “financial challenges” and a “lack of liquidity” needed to continue operations. Reykjavik-based low-cost airline Play Airlines had canceled all its flights in an abrupt end to multiple attempts to turn its finances around just a few weeks earlier.

The national carrier for the Balkan country of Albania, Tirana-based Air Albania has not run any flights since the start of December after main investor Turkish Airlines announced plans to sell its stake and local residents wait to see whether it will be able to restart or go into liquidation.

ECAir cancels flight, travelers reports receiving “no information”

On the African continent, the national carrier for the Republic of the Congo is also currently in an unclear state, as locals set to fly with the airline reported coming to the airport and finding no staff at check-in counters, local outlet Business in Cameroon reported.

Launched in 2011 out of the Republic of the Congo capital of Brazzaville, Equatorial Congo Airlines had a fleet of one Boeing 737-700 that it used to run flights within the Central African country and to neighbors such as Gabon and Cameroon. The airline is more frequently referred to in the shortened form of ECAir.

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Travelers set to take the EJ211 flight from Brazzaville to Yaoundé in Cameroon on Dec. 19 arrived to the airport to discover that it has been canceled.

They said they did not receive any prior notice but instead discovered it when the flight did not appear on any departure boards, and the ECAir check-in counters were roped off, with no staff attending to them.

“The airline provided no information,” one Brazzaville travel agency announced to its clients, as reported by Business In Cameroon. One source close to the airline said the problem arose over a technical issue that made the plane inoperable.

The flag carrier for the Republic of the Congo had restarted operations in 2024.

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The airline had only resumed operations in 2024, having lacked the aircraft needed to run flights.

These airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2025:

  • Spirit Airlines (Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc.): Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time on August 29,2025.
  • Ravn Alaska: Ceased operations in August 2025 after earlier Chapter 11 proceedings; shut down flights and folded into other operations such as New Pacific.
  • Corporate Air: Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (restructuring) in September 2025 as part of a planned sale, according to Bondoro.
  • Play Airlines: The Reykjavik-based airline shut down operations and entered involuntary bankruptcy in September 2025.
  • Braathens Airlines:Forced to file for bankruptcy and canceled all flights in September 2025.

“This is the umpteenth shutdown since operations resumed,” the source told the local outlet. “The problem is that the airline does not maintain a stock of spare parts. As a result, even minor technical issues can ground its only aircraft for several weeks.”

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Travel agencies with affected clients instructed them to keep trying to contact the airline for information about when the flight would run.

Those needing to travel between Brazzaville and Yaoundé immediately reported purchasing tickets with competing airlines such as Cameroon’s Camair-Co at inflated prices due to the rush of other travelers suddenly needing to book the same routes.

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