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Seven of Our Favorite Defunct Airlines of Yesteryear

It sure seems like a number of world airlines have been closing up shop recently. Last week, we saw two European carriers cease operations and call it quits. Barcelona-based, Spanair, and the Hungarian flag carrier, Malev, both abruptly stopped flying, stranding passengers all over the continent. Of course, these latest casualties are not the only airlines to make their final approaches.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and reminisce of those airlines we never forget and, secretly, wish we could still fly. These brands never had an iPhone app, some barely had a website, but they will always play a role in the golden age of air travel.

Some of favorite defunct airlines, in no particular order:

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Three Years After Skybus Bit the Big One, It's Still Making News

This is a hard topic for us to discuss, because we’re still bitter about the $9 flights that we had to Southern California that were canceled thanks to a pesky little bankruptcy. Even as we hold back our tears, we feel it’s important to recognize the three-year anniversary of Skybus' going belly up.

Several years after its demise, the defunct airline is still making news, as it continues to payback all those investors and companies that believed in cheap airfare as the next big thing. Despite not making too much cash during its short run, the airline was actually able to pay back most of its creditors. We’re hardly bankruptcy law experts, but apparently paying back unsecured debts is kind of a big deal.

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Bankrupt Mexicana Stops All Flights, but They Could Still Come Back

Apparently that last minute infusion of cash was not enough, as Mexicana and its planes might be going to that big terminal in the sky. Over the weekend, the troubled airline shut down all flights until further notice, as they continued to blame all of their money issues.

Things were struggling on Friday like the past few weeks, but by Saturday afternoon, the planes stayed parked at their gates. Mexicana wants passengers stuck with tickets to visit their website to request a refund. There’s a pretty straightforward refund form that can be filled out online, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be saving your cash anytime soon. For those stuck away from home, Aeromexico is promising to help out, but you’ll still have to spend a little money, as they’re only offering discounts on standby flights.

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Saudi LCC Sama Parks Its Planes after Only a Few Years in the Air

We haven’t had a low cost carrier shut down in a few months, but we knew we wouldn’t make it to the end of the year before finding out about another one. Sama—an LCC from Saudi Arabia—shut things down at the beginning of the week after losing around $266 million.

The airline thought that the government would kind of help them out with things like fuel subsidies, but apparently the help never came through. Sama officials even went looking for some rich people to assist them with one last infusion of cash, kind of like Mexicana, but that also didn’t work out.

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Mexicana May Be Saved, but Only Time Will Tell

Mexicana has not been having a good August, but it looks like a group of fairly wealthy folks want to help the airline end 2010 with a smile.

A group of Mexican investors under the name of "Tenedora K" have put together enough money to buy 95 percent of the troubled airline. They left just enough for the pilots’ union to keep control of the remaining five percent. At this point, Mexicana has not released any information about their sale, but we’d expect to get some news any day now.

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Canceled Flights and Unpaid Pilots Aren't Good Signs for Mexicana

Things are not going well for Mexicana. You already knew that they just became the latest airline to file for bankruptcy, and there’s that whole FAA downgrade thing that has to be a blow to their airline ego. It seems that the bad news is compounding quickly, and we might not be hearing much from them in a few months if their bad luck continues.

Last week the airline suspended ticket sales just days after filing for bankruptcy protection, but the airline promised that they would continue flying for those passengers that already held tickets. The airline hoped that this would give them some time to continue labor talks with some employees, but we just think that this reveals how bad things really are.

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Another One Bites the Dust: Mexicana Files for Bankruptcy

The string of great news for the oneworld airline alliance had to stop some time, and apparently that time was yesterday. That's when ailing Mexican national airline Mexicana officially filed for bankruptcy in the US and Mexico. The move will allow them to keep operating, though it obviously casts doubt on the company's long-term viability. It's also not a particularly positive sign for the airline industry as a whole, which really just can't catch a break.

Still, it's hard to say that this filing was totally unexpected. Between getting their air safety rating downgraded by the FAA and having their planes randomly confiscated by Canadian lessors, the airline wasn't exactly convening an overwhelming ethos of stability.

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Breaking: Japan Press Rumors Say JAL Deal Done with Delta, Dumping American

Having finally filed for bankruptcy Tuesday after what seemed like forever, Japan Airlines is free to look toward long-term restructuring rather than short-term "please god let us operate another week" revenue generation. The next big question was how the Japanese flagship airline would decide in the high-stakes poker game between American and Delta, both of whom have been heavily courting JAL—American to keep them in oneworld and Delta to get them to switch to SkyTeam. Now there are reports precolating out of Japanese media, and we haven't seen them on any of the wires yet, so you're warned, that JAL has just closed the deal with Delta.

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Done and Done: Japan Airlines Going Into Bankruptcy

This time last week there were a wealth of confusing options for keeping Japan's troubled flagship carrier, Japan Airlines, out of bankruptcy. There was talk of bankruptcy-avoiding restructuring. There was talk of a kind of half-bankruptcy where the airline would stay listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There was talk of a government bailout. And the conclusion? Nope and nope and nope.

The sixth-largest bankruptcy in the history of Japan—a country which, we'll remind you, is something more than a bit player in the global economy—is set to happen and it's set to happen soon:

A final decision on the future of Asia’s largest carrier, founded in 1951, may be made this week, and a bankruptcy filing will follow next week, according to three people familiar with the situation. The finance ministry and the Tokyo-based carrier’s biggest lenders all favor a court restructuring, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Another European Airline Bites The Dust, Stranding Holiday Passengers

Your holiday air travel may have been a little difficult, but at least your airline is likely still in business for your trip back home. That’s not the case for many unlucky passengers that were counting on Spain’s Air Comet to fly them back from holiday trips. The airline shut things down last week, stranding passengers and providing pink slips to more than 600 employees. The whole problem started because the airline kind of didn’t pay the bills for its leased airplanes—oops!

The airline primarily flew to Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and other countries in the region to and from Madrid. That means there were passengers stuck all over the place. Thankfully, charter flights were provided to help out the stranded passengers, but at first only about half of the travelers got the chance to get out of the airport. Hopefully a few more private planes will be shuttled back and forth to get the remaining passengers where they need to be so they can at least welcome 2010 without too much stress. We really feel for the stranded passengers and wish them luck with this whole ordeal.

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European LCC FlyGlobespan Abruptly Fails, Stranding Thousands of Passengers

We really hate it when this happens, especially when it happened to Slovakia-based SkyEurope only a few months ago, but Scotland's LCC airline FlyGlobespan has shut down abruptly, stranding thousands of their passengers around Europe and canceling future flights and vacations. The airline stopped trading yesterday and entered administration; in laymen's terms they are bankrupt.

And just like with SkyEurope, other European airlines are doing their best to mobilize and rescue some 4,500 stranded former FlyGlobespan passengers trapped on holiday mainly in Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt. Ryanair was the first to jump on offering "Globespan Rescue" rates from 59 GBP ($96.50), which is pricey for the LCC but reasonable if you consider the last-minute, space-available nature of these rescue seats.

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The CEO Of Skybus Finally Speaks Up About What Went Wrong

If a cheap flight is on your holiday wish list, an airline like Skybus would really help out Santa and his elves this year. Too bad we all know what happened to that little orange airline—it crashed and burned on the balance sheets. Long after the airline’s demise, the former CEO Bill Diffenderffer is speaking about what went wrong with his airline. Unfortunately, it was always pretty clear to us, costs went up like crazy and the airline’s fares went down like crazy. At least we finally got to hear something from the big boss.

He stated that the airline ran into lots of trouble all at the same time. Diffenderffer did take responsibility for the failure of the airline, because as he sees it, he was in charge and he did not get the job done. The combination of high oil prices, sinking passenger confidence, and weather problems all led to the airline's adios from the commercial airline business. Planes breaking down and lacking the necessary back-up aircraft didn’t help the cause either.

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