The collapse of travel group Thomas Cook and a trio of subsidiary airlines, leaving 600,000 vacationers stranded, is unlikely to be the last failure among Europe’s struggling second-tier carriers, Reuters reported. As Britain was activating plans for its biggest peacetime repatriation, two smaller operators, Aigle Azur and XL Airways, were before the French bankruptcy courts on Monday. Shares in larger airlines rose on expectations that Thomas Cook’s demise would bring them more passengers, higher fares and new airport slots. But many are wrestling with similar problems. The list of sector bankruptcies is growing: Monarch, Air Berlin and Alitalia failed in 2017, followed by Primera and Cobalt last year and Germania, Flybmi and Iceland’s WOW so far in 2019. Regional operator Flybe’s sale to a Virgin Atlantic-led consortium has narrowly averted its collapse. Larger European carriers are not immune from the threat. Third-ranked low-cost operator Norwegian Air, which has bled cash while making inroads in the transatlantic market, won a reprieve from creditors last week, postponing repayment on $380 million in debt for up to two years.
