Turkish airline AtlasGlobal has suspended operations for a second time, less than two months after it restored services. None of the carrier’s planned 26 rotations departed on February 13 and its schedules for February 14 have also been cancelled.
On November 26 of last year, the Istanbul-based airline suspended operations between November 26 and December 21, stating the decision had been made to “provide the necessary configuration and improvement in our cash flow”. The company also stated there was reduced demand for its flight owing to the “fast and aggressive” depreciation of the Turkish Lira.
It is understood that financial problems related to weakening currency have been compounded by the transferring of flights from Istanbul/Atatürk, which closed last April, to the city’s new airport. The airline stated in November that the move had led to a “sharp rise in logistics and operational costs, making it impossible to make up for our losses recorded in the 2016-17 period”.
The carrier’s fleet has been greatly reduced in recent months. Having fielded eight Airbus A321s and a trio of A330-200s at the start of November, AtlasGlobal had just two A321s to its name at the beginning of February – TC-ATF (c/n 761) and TC-AGG (c/n 806).
The carrier is the third European casualty in five weeks, following Italian carriers Ernest Airlines and Air Italy.
