Major airline COLLAPSES – all flights SUSPENDED from midnight
Cyprus (Daily Star): Cobalt airlines, the largest Cyprus-based airline which serves London Heathrow, Stansted and Garwick airports, grounded all flights from midnight Thursday and ceased trading.
It said in a statement on Wednesday night: “Cobalt regrets to announce that it will be cancelling all Flights as of 23:50 hours on October 17, 2018, due to indefinite suspension of Cobalt’s operations.
“As a result, future flights or services provided by Cobalt will be cancelled and will no longer operate.
“Passengers who have un-flown tickets are instructed not to go to Larnaca Airport or any departure airport tomorrow, 18 October 2018 as no Cobalt flights will operate and no Cobalt staff will be present.
“For refunds, please contact your credit card provider or Travel Agent.
“We sincerely apologise once again and would like to thank our very loyal customers for their support over the last two years of Cobalt operations.”
The shock news came after the cash-struck airline reportedly failed to reach a deal with an investor and apparently had only £13million in its accounts.
The Cypriot Transport Minister confirmed tonight that they will help with travel for anyone left stranded by the collapse of Cobalt.
While a Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “We will provide assistance to customers who turn up at the airport tomorrow.”
The cancellations come after Danish budget carrier Primera Air ceased trading earlier this month.
A Cobalt flight bound for Larnaca in Cyprus departed London Heathrow at 6 pm this evening and landed shortly after 10 pm.
This was believed to be Cobalt’s last ever flight.
Cyprus is a hugely popular holiday hotspot for Brits – with millions flying to the Mediterranean island every year.
Cobalt served multiple destinations across Europe including London, Paris, Madrid and Dublin.
It also flew to Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, as well as Tel Aviv in Israel and Moscow in Russia.
The collapse of Cobalt comes just weeks after Icelandic budget airline Primera Air also ceased operations.
It blamed the failure on the late arrival of new aircraft from Airbus which forced cancellations and said it had failed to secure long-term financing.