While the aviation industry is particularly prone to bankruptcies due to the sky-high cost of operations, the autumn months of 2025 brought with them a few major bankruptcy announcements in short succession.
In the last days of August, low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy for the second time in nine months after its earlier plans to restructure and bring in customers through higher fare classes failed to pan out.
A month later, Icelandic low-cost carrier Play Airlines canceled all flights and told travelers to rebook with other airlines amid several quarters of financial losses while Swedish company Braathens Aviation followed with another bankruptcy just a few days later.
“Mainly serves private jets, leisure and training flights”
The carrier ran chartered flights for regional vacation airlines such as Ving and Apollo and as a result left thousands of tourists stranded in destinations like the Canary Islands.
While no fresh airline bankruptcies have made the news as of mid-October, a regional airport has been declared “bankrupt in all but name” by some activists drawing attention to the fact that it serves primarily private jets.
Related: Another airline is facing bankruptcy after investor pulls out
Antwerp International Airport (DNR), which is known locally as Deurne Airport, is used primarily for regional flights given that the much larger Brussels Airport (BRU) is only an hour away while major airports like Charles De Gaulle (CDG) and Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) are also not very far.
Earlier this August, Deurne reported a net loss of €658,000 in 2024 and a cumulative loss of €2.3 million over the last two years.
Antwerp has a population of just under 600,000 residents.
Unsplash
“Another very bad year”: Why this Belgian airport is struggling
“Deurne Airport has never really done well,” Wouter Dewulf, an aviation economist and professor at the University of Antwerp, said to a local Belgian outlet. “Last year was another very bad year. […] TUI Fly, which operates tourist flights, shut down operations for several months due to a problem with spare parts. There were also a lot of additional costs, including obtaining an environmental permit.”
More on travel:
- United Airlines CEO gives stark warning on Olympic Games
- Another regional airline cancels all flights, no refunds
- US government issues sudden warning on Switzerland travel
- Another country just issued a new visa requirement for visitors
Amid several other pullbacks by other airlines over the last few months, Greenpeace Belgium representative Joeri Thijs told the Brussels Signal that Deurne “mainly serves private jets, leisure and training flights” and is “bankrupt in all but name.”
While Greenpeace calls for the airport to be shut down and the money to be put toward public transport into and around the city, locals had previously depended on Deurne to take flights within Europe without having to travel to a larger city.
Local officials, in turn, had also been hoping that the situation would eventually turn around and local airlines would eventually restart flying into Antwerp. But compared to the much lower €200 for landing a private jet, the high airport fees charged to commercial airlines have led to a situation in which airlines are disincentivized from coming in.
Deurne has, in turn, continued to lose money money and operates only through subsidies from the local government despite continued promises to look for alternative sources of income.
“That’s not unusual, because it’s very difficult to make small regional airports profitable,” Dewulf explained further last August.
Related: Tourists still stranded after airline goes bankrupt, cancels flights