Holiday Lettings news - Nationwide Airlines suspends flights

Nationwide Airlines suspends flights

Yet another budget airline has fallen victim to spiraling oil prices and seen itself forced to suspend all its flights, the second such case in under a week. South African low-cost carrier Nationwide Airlines has this week grounded its planes due to financial problems, the Telegraph reports.

In its heyday Nationwide Airlines operated 50 routes, both international and domestic, including four weekly flights from London Gatwick to Johannesburg. Several factors have been attributed to the demise of the South African carrier, which failed to recover completely after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) last November grounded its entire fleet, following an engine falling off one of the planes shortly after take-off from Cape Town.

Vernon Bricknell, the airline's chief executive, felt that this was, however, not the only reason behind the fate of Nationwide, laying blame with rising fuel costs and fewer passengers: "Our cash-flow has become critical and as a result we have decided to voluntarily cease all flight operations until further notice. In December and January we resumed operations and attained a gradual recovery of the business. However, in March and April we faced a 30 per cent increase in fuel costs coupled with a decrease in passenger load factors."

It is not just the economy class airlines that are experiencing turbulence; EOS, the executive airline operating between London and New York, filed for bankruptcy last weekend. Passengers left in the lurch are in the meantime able to take advantage of special fares with Virgin Atlantic, as stranded holidaymakers are informed on the Virgin Atlantic website.

Nationwide Airlines is the latest in a long list of casualties who have fallen foul of the rising cost of oil, the Telegraph writes. In recent months many airlines, aside from Nationwide and EOS, have been forced to cease operations, including Oasis Hong Kong, ATA, and MaxJet. Holidaymakers can, however, take heart in the fact that the big boys in the world of economy airlines continue to expand their route networks. As was widely reported, easyJet this week announced flights from Manchester to Alicante, due to take off from September.

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