Yet another airline has collapsed – this time British operation Flybmi, costing almost 400 jobs as hundreds of flights were cancelled at short notice. It is the latest in a string of recent European airline failures, including Air Berlin, Alitalia, Monarch, Primera, Azur and Cobalt. This is despite years of good growth in worldwide air passenger demand, including in Europe. So why are so many airlines going out of business?
Aviation is an unattractive industry from an investor point of view at the best of times, notwithstanding the passenger growth. Aeroplanes are expensive assets with few alternative uses, which limits the ability of airlines to reduce their capacity during lean periods – compared to, say, a manufacturing business that can close a plant and lay off workers.
