Total failure: A list of carriers that ceased to exist in 2023

The low-cost airline market was turbulent in 2023, with Norwegian Flyr and two Colombian low-cost airlines suspending operations.

Other well-known bankruptcies include Flybe and Air Moldova, while India's Go First still hopes to resume operations after suspending flights in May 2023, Simple Flying writes.

Only a few mergers took place in 2023, with most of them being airlines that integrated low-cost or regional operations into their groups.

The year started with a lot of turbulence for the Colombian aviation market. Two low-cost airlines, Ultra Air and Viva, which also had a subsidiary in Peru, quickly went out of business. While the former blamed a lack of capital, the latter accused the Colombian authorities, who were in no hurry to approve its merger with Avianca, even denying the deal at first.

17 former Viva Air aircraft have joined the fleet, while only one of the six Airbus A320ceo Ultra Air aircraft has a new operator: Bulgaria's Electra Airways.

In addition to the two Colombian low-cost carriers, Norway's Flyr also ceased operations, citing liquidity difficulties. Although there has been no official announcement, Indian airline Go First has not been flying since May 2023, and the low-cost airline's social media administrator announced that the suspension of flights has been extended until February 4, 2024. The future does not look bright for the airline, which was once the second-largest airline in India by domestic market share in 2021.

There was one airline that tried to resume flights, Flybe, based in the United Kingdom (UK). The company initially ceased operations in March 2020, just as the pandemic grounded fleets around the world. Its merger with Virgin Atlantic seemed to be falling apart.

In April 2021, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted the relaunched Flybe an Air Operator Certificate (AOC), with the airline resuming flights with a De Havilland Canada DHC Dash 8 Q400. At its peak, it operated ten aircraft of this type before folding again in January 2023.

There were full-service airlines that also ceased operations. For example, in August 2023, Moldova's flag carrier, aptly named Air Moldova, had its AOC suspended by local authorities.