Facing a tougher market and smaller customer base, many regional airlines launch with great ambitions but ultimately fail to survive in a very expensive industry.
British regional carriers Eastern Airways and Blue Channels, Swedish carriers Braathens Aviation and H-Bird, and Icelandic low-cost carrier Play Airlines have all collapsed in high-profile shutdowns over the last year.
National carrier Air Albania and Slovenian low-cost airline AlpAvia have also shut down over various types of problems in the last six months. The latest Europe airline to shut down and cancel all flights is low-cost carrier GoTo Fly based out of Forlì Airport (FRL) in northern Italy.
Italian GoTo Fly airline discontinues service, cancels flights
The virtual carrier, which launched in 2023 with the goal of bringing back air traffic to the Emilia-Romagna region after the covid-19 pandemic has, as first reported by Swiss outlet ch-aviation, discontinued service.
Over the three years that it spent in operation, the virtual airline served more than 83,000 passengers on 16 routes to various European cities. A virtual airline is one that sells tickets through its brand and website but outsources the flights themselves to other airlines. The airline also operated with over 450 travel agencies in different corners of Europe.
Related: Another airline loses license, all flights off
As of Apr. 10, sections of GoTo Fly’s website have been taken down while a social media post on its Facebook account thanked the 83,000 travelers for their business.
The same flights to destinations such as Vienna and Athens from Forlì will be run by the airlines themselves rather than GoTo Fly. The airline also ran some select charter flights.
Shutterstock
“That phase is over”: GoTo Fly shut down as airline traffic grows
According to GoTo Fly representatives, the rise in regular traffic dissolved the need to market specific flights through another brand.
“It all arose from the post-Covid need to overcome the lack of carriers when Ridolfi was ready to restart,” Riccardo Pregnolato, account manager of the management company overseeing Forlì Airport, said in a statement to the press translated from the original Italian. “Today, that phase is over. Let’s leave transportation to those who do it professionally, i.e., the airlines; we’ll take care of the airport.”
These airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2025:
- Spirit Airlines (Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc.): Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time on Aug. 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:The airline was forced to file for bankruptcy and canceled all of its flights in September 2025.
More Travel News:
- Airline to launch unusual new flight to Cayman Islands from the U.S.
- Here is where you should go for those last days of ski season
- Unexpected country is most luxurious travel destination for 2026
- U.S. government issues strange warning on Ireland travel
The last flight through GoTo Fly ran from Forlì to Lampedusa on Oct. 11 — as a result, no passengers will be immediately affected by the cancelations while the flight ran on Air Mediterranean on a Boeing B737-400. At its peak in 2024, GoTo Fly expanded to up to 16 destinations in Italy, Greece, Croatia and France.
Related: Another travel company files for bankruptcy, cancels all trips