An Irish airline joined the list of aviation casualties this week. The collapse of Fly4 Airlines Green into provisional liquidation marks another chapter in the growing list of aviation casualties linked to the sharp rise in jet fuel prices. On 11 November the Dublin registered carrier petitioned the Irish High Court for this emergency measure and Judge Brian Cregan granted the application.
The court appointed Mark Degnan and Brendan O’Reilly of Interpath as joint provisional liquidators. Under Irish law the procedure exists to protect assets once insolvency appears imminent and a winding up petition has been lodged. The move freezes the company’s position while the liquidators assess options for creditors and stakeholders.
Fly4 Airlines Green emerged in 2023 from a partnership between Poland’s Enter Air which held a 51 per cent stake and Germany’s TUI Beteiligungs GmbH which held the remaining 49 per cent. The venture aimed to supply flexible ACMI and charter capacity to airlines tour operators and brokers particularly during peak periods and for covering technical groundings or sudden demand spikes.
Flight operations began in March 2024 from its base at Dublin Airport. Rather than selling tickets directly to the public the company maintained a fleet of four Boeing 737-800 aircraft which it wet leased to clients including the Indian carrier SpiceJet and the German holiday airline Sundair.
A fifth aircraft was due for delivery. ADS-B tracking data shows that all four aircraft were grounded between 28 October and 6 November 2026 with two parked at Istanbul Atatürk one at Nuremberg and one at Brussels National. As a direct result of the insolvency process those aircraft remain on the ground and any associated flying has ceased.
Client airline questions
It is not immediately clear whether any flights scheduled on client airlines have had to be canceled due to a partner’s financial collapse. Fly4 Airlines itself had not been selling tickets to the general public. Fly4 Airlines is also reported to have had 20 employees, of whom 12 were based in Ireland and eight in england while 80 others worked for it as air crew through other airlines. Tui Group held a 49% stake in the airline. Enter Air held a 51% stake.
Fly4, which operates four B737-800s with one more to be delivered, provides short-notice capacity to airlines, brokers, and tour operators, including cover for technical groundings and unexpected demand.
ADS-B data shows that all four B737-800s were grounded between October 28 and November 6, 2026. Two are parked at Istanbul Atatürk, one at Nuremberg, and the fourth at Brussels National.
Fly4 Airlines was established in 2023, launched flight operations in March 2024, and is headquartered at Dublin International. It is owned 51% by Polish charter carrier Enter Air and 49% by Germany’s TUI Beteiligungs GmbH. The venture was created to supply flexible capacity, particularly to TUI and other carriers during peak periods.
Grief from the Gulf
In a letter submitted to the court Chief Financial Officer Douglas Fay set out the financial deterioration. The airline recorded a loss of €1.1 million in the first nine months of 2026 a figure that fell materially short of expectations. Fay attributed the shortfall to the impact of the US Iran war and the increased fuel costs associated with it. The company had already operated at a loss of approximately €4 million in 2025.
Those successive deficits compounded until the balance sheet left no realistic alternative to insolvency proceedings. The carrier employed twenty people of whom twelve were based in Ireland and eight in England while a further eighty air crew worked for it through arrangements with other airlines. The provisional liquidation therefore affects a relatively contained payroll yet it still removes a specialist supplier from the European wet lease market at a time when operators face pressure on both cost and availability.
The fuel cost surge that sealed Fly4’s fate did not arise in isolation. Geopolitical tension in the Middle East disrupted supply chains and pushed refining margins higher. Airlines that had left portions of their fuel requirements unhedged found themselves exposed to price spikes that eroded thin operating margins. Wet lease providers occupy a particularly vulnerable position in this environment. Their business model depends on matching aircraft and crews to short term contracts at rates that cover ownership financing crew and fuel.
When fuel prices rise faster than the rates that lessees are prepared to pay the margin disappears. Fly4’s experience illustrates the point with clinical clarity. The company had built a fleet specifically to serve the flexible capacity needs of larger groups including its own shareholder TUI. Once the fuel equation turned negative the contracts could no longer sustain the operation.
Specialised sector
Irish aviation has long relied on the ACMI and charter segment as a source of specialised employment and as a contributor to the wider aerospace cluster around Dublin. The presence of a wet lease operator adds resilience for airlines that encounter unexpected aircraft unavailability. Its disappearance therefore reduces the options available to carriers seeking rapid cover. At the same time the case raises questions about the capital structures that underpin such ventures.
Enter Air and TUI each brought complementary strengths to the partnership. The Polish carrier contributed operational expertise in the charter market while TUI brought demand from its holiday programmes. Even with those advantages the combined entity proved unable to absorb the fuel shock. The outcome suggests that minority or joint ownership arrangements may not always provide sufficient financial depth when external costs move rapidly against the operator.
The grounding of the four Boeing 737-800s also carries operational consequences for the airlines that had leased them. SpiceJet and Sundair must now source alternative capacity at short notice in a market already strained by elevated fuel prices and residual post pandemic fleet constraints. It remains unclear whether any scheduled services operated by those clients have been cancelled as a direct result of Fly4’s collapse.
Because Fly4 itself never sold tickets to the travelling public the immediate consumer impact is limited. The secondary effects on crew employment and on the residual values of the aircraft are more tangible. The joint provisional liquidators will need to determine whether the leases can be novated to new operators or whether the aircraft will be returned to lessors and remarketed. Each path carries its own timeline and cost.
Fitting a pattern
Looking across the European sector the Fly4 case fits a pattern of smaller and mid sized operators that have struggled once fuel costs detached from previous planning assumptions. Larger network carriers with stronger balance sheets and more sophisticated hedging programmes have been better placed to manage the volatility. Specialist wet lease companies by contrast often operate closer to the edge of viability.
Their contracts are shorter their customer base is narrower and their ability to pass on cost increases is constrained by the competitive alternatives available to lessees. When a war induced price spike arrives the margin for error shrinks to nothing. The Irish High Court decision therefore serves as a reminder that the fuel market remains a primary risk factor for any aviation business that lacks either scale or comprehensive hedging cover.
The wider industry continues to adapt to a fuel price environment that is higher and more volatile than the levels assumed in many pre 2026 business plans. Airlines are revisiting hedging strategies route profitability and fleet composition. Lessors are scrutinising the credit quality of wet lease customers more closely.
Regulators and governments are monitoring the potential for further failures that could affect connectivity or employment. In that context the provisional liquidation of Fly4 Airlines Green stands as a concrete example of how rapidly a specialised operator can move from service to insolvency once external cost pressures intensify. The four grounded Boeing 737-800s parked at airports in Türkiye Germany and Belgium are the visible symbols of that transition.
Seeking signals
As the joint provisional liquidators begin their work the market will watch for signals about the future of the aircraft and the residual demand for short notice capacity. The case also invites closer scrutiny of the assumptions that underpinned the original 2023 partnership between Enter Air and TUI. Flexible capacity remains a necessary feature of the European aviation system.
The challenge is to structure and capitalise such businesses so that they can withstand the fuel price shocks that have become a recurring feature of the current decade. Fly4’s journey from launch in 2024 to provisional liquidation in November 2026 demonstrates the difficulty of that task when geopolitical events drive fuel costs beyond the levels that contracts can absorb.
The Irish High Court has provided an orderly framework for the next stage. Mark Degnan and Brendan O’Reilly of Interpath will apply their restructuring expertise to an airline whose losses accumulated over two successive periods and whose fleet is already parked.
The outcome will matter for the creditors the employees the lessors and the clients that had relied on the aircraft. It will also contribute to the accumulating evidence of how the jet fuel crisis continues to reshape the European aviation landscape one operator at a time.
List of the Fallen
Airlines that ceased operations, entered liquidation/bankruptcy leading to shutdown, or had their operating certificates revoked in 2026 (as of mid-November 2026) include the following. This is based on contemporary industry tracking and news reports; lists are not always exhaustive, and some suspensions were initially described as temporary.
- Air Antilles (France): Regional carrier serving the French Antilles. Grounded by regulators in December 2025 over operational and security deficiencies; a Guadeloupe court ordered its dissolution in April 2026.Allplane
- AirExplore (Slovakia): ACMI and charter operator (part of Avia Solutions Group) with Boeing 737s. It permanently ceased all flights on 10 November 2026 and moved to surrender its Air Operator Certificate amid losses, high fuel costs, debt, and broader macroeconomic pressures.Travelextra
- Albastar (Spain): Mallorca-based charter and ACMI operator with Boeing 737-800s. It declared a (initially temporary) cessation of operations in November 2026 and prepared insolvency filings, citing pandemic-era debt, geopolitical pressures, and rising fuel costs.Thestreet
- AlpAvia (Slovenia): Charter airline. It shut down / had its AOC revoked in March 2026 amid financial problems.Thestreet
- Animawings (Romania): Private carrier that had expanded with Airbus A220s and A320s. It filed for insolvency in autumn 2026, grounded its A220 fleet (citing technical issues), and suspended all scheduled flights (extended through at least the end of 2026). Its AOC faced suspension.Aviationweek
- Ascend Airways (England): ACMI operator (Avia Solutions Group) with a fleet of Boeing 737s. Closed in April 2026 amid a difficult trading environment in the ACMI sector.Allplane
- Dan Air (Romania): Carrier based in Bacău that had undergone multiple business-model and base changes. It was grounded in November 2026 while operating a small number of A320-family aircraft.Allplane
- Fly4Airlines (Ireland): Short-lived ACMI joint venture between Poland’s Enter Air and TUI (launched 2023), operating Boeing 737-800s. It entered provisional liquidation in mid-November 2026 after losses driven by high fuel costs and weak utilisation; flying had already ended.Flyinginireland
- flybondi (Argentina): Low-cost carrier that operated roughly 15 Boeing 737-800s on domestic and regional routes. It ceased operations after prolonged financial and operational difficulties.Allplane
- Global Airlines (England): A380-focused startup that completed only a handful of charter flights (Glasgow/Manchester–New York) in 2025. Its sole aircraft was stored from mid-2025. A UK High Court ordered compulsory liquidation on 4 November 2026 following creditor petitions; the company ran out of funds and could not resume operations.Birminghammail
- Magnicharters (Mexico): Leisure and charter airline. Operations stopped around April 2026; a federal court declared it bankrupt in early November 2026 and opened liquidation proceedings. Debts were estimated near 800 million pesos; many passengers and package buyers were left without flights or refunds.Deeparrival
- Spirit Airlines (United States): Major ultra-low-cost carrier. It ceased all flights on 2 May 2026 after earlier Chapter 11 filings. High jet fuel costs, unsuccessful restructuring efforts, and the lack of a government bailout led to a wind-down. It ranks among the largest US airline failures in recent decades.Allplane
- Starflite Aviation (United States): Houston-based Part 135 charter operator. The FAA issued an emergency order in late February 2026 revoking its air carrier certificate over alleged falsification of pilot training records, ending operations.Faa
High jet-fuel prices (linked in reports to geopolitical tensions), residual pandemic debt, and weak utilisation in the ACMI/charter segment were recurring factors across many of these cases. Larger network carriers generally avoided outright failure in the same period, though several faced margin pressure. Status can change (for example, some insolvency processes aim at restructuring), so check primary regulatory or court sources for the latest on any specific carrier.
