Another airline loses license forever, all flights off

Before it can begin advertising and selling tickets to passengers, any commercial airline that hopes to take off the ground needs an Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).

Given out by the aviation regulatory authority in a given country, the AOC is granted once the airline proves it has the necessary aircraft, staff, safety systems, and financial resources to operate over the long term.

The lack of the latter, or financial problems that can creep up in a notoriously expensive industry, is also the most common reason that an existing airline can have its AOC revoked.

Airlines that lost their AOCs over the last six months include Estonia-based SmartLynx Airlines, Austria-based Mali Air, and Swedish charter carrier H-Bird as well as the Houston-based charter carrier Starflite Aviation in the U.S.

Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia loses AOC

Not to be confused with a historic French aircraft manufacturer of the same name, Slovenian charter airline AlpAvia was established out of Ljubljana Airport in 2018 and began operating in 2022 with a single flight to Malpensa Airport in Milan (MXP).

With a fleet of two Embraer ERJ-145 jets and one Boeing 737, the charter airline expanded to run routes between a number of cities in Central Europe including Vienna, Valencia and Lyon at the farthest.

Related: Airline loses license over false pilot records, all flights off

“Avoid hassle from commercial flights and join our dedicated crew on an AlpAvia charter flight,” the airline writes on its website while also advertising service such as aircraft maintenance and pilot training.

As first reported by Swiss outlet ch-aviation, AlpAvia became the latest European airline to lose its AOC by the Slovenian aviation regulatory agency over what is likely to be financial problems. As a result, any flights that the airline may have hoped to run in the future are now off.

AlpAvia is a Slovenian charter airline that launched out of Ljubljana Airport in 2018.

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What happens after an airline files for bankruptcy, loses its AOC

AlpAvia has not publicly commented on the situation. On its website, it does not advertise specific routes but had been asking any interested passengers to reach out to them to arrange a trip.

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While very few other details on what caused the revoked AOC are currently publicly available, the collapse of similar charter airlines came as a result of struggling to bring in enough of the high-spending travelers who can and want to private that it had relied upon when launching the airline.

Similar troubles befell Tailwind Air, a New York-based charter airline that had started running downtown-to-downtown routes between New York, Boston and several other East Coast cities but ultimately ended up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2026.

Related: Bankrupt regional airline to liquidate, cancels all flights

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