LONDON – According to documents seen by AviationSource, Hans Airways has gone insolvent, with the airline currently looking for a rescue plan.
Bryan Southon, who approached us, stated that he was after payment from Hans Airways and hadn’t received such payment in months for his services.
In the email, Paul Bradley, the Director of Continuing Airworthiness Management at the airline, said the following after his apology for lack of payment:
“Also, for your information, since then, I am also very sorry to have to report that Hans Airways is currently insolvent. We are, however, exploring the potential option of a rescue plan.”
Alison Chambers of Emerald Media stated that she was “aware they are restructuring” and stated that this should “be as early as next week” for such restructuring efforts to be announced.
A Rocky Road Ahead…
At the start of this month, it was announced by the airline that they are seeking additional investment after some money was pulled out:
Spokespeople at the carrier are trying to calm nerves, as seen in a statement sent to UK Aviation News:
“Hans Airways is committed to launching long haul, affordable commercial air services between the UK and India.”
“It is working on a restructuring in order to progress that goal, including advancing talks with new parties to secure additional investment to meet AOC requirements. Launching an airline is a long journey, and some turbulence is inevitable.”
AviationSource has approached CEO Satnam Saini directly, and at the time of publication, he has left our messages on read.
Lack of Confidence in the Airline?
There could be dwindling confidence in the Birmingham-Amritsar rotation doing well for the carrier, especially with major competitor Air India already operating this route.
Such a route is already well-established by the Indian flag carrier, so pricing wouldn’t necessarily be a concern, as Hans is planning to start services using a hybrid model of LCC pricing and full service onboard.
With that in mind, there could be an element of rare confidence in the carrier, hence why Saini has had to go to India to continue talks with investors.
Back in January, AviationSource interviewed Saini, and he insisted that Hans Airways is an airline of substance compared to his competitor of, flyPOP.
“We don’t compete; we create. You look at the market, we do what we set out to do, and we don’t compete with them. They compete with us, on publicity and everything. Whatever we say has some substance behind this”, Saini said back in January.
With that specific quote in mind, the current environment for Hans Airways doesn’t appear to be one of substance, especially after the continuous delays in the launch process.
Overall…
It remains clear that Hans Airways needs to hope for some form of good faith if rescue talks are to go well.
This does represent another casualty to the airline industry so far unless, of course, things change in the coming weeks ahead.
All eyes will now be on the carrier to establish whether it can save itself from the brink of collapse and press ahead with its plans to launch Birmingham-Amritsar flights by year-end.
