XL Airways France orders two A330-900s ch-aviation PRO exclusive

WOW air (WW, Reykjavik Keflavik) has deferred its relaunch from October 2019 to December 2019 and plans to open ticket sales in November, parent USAerospace Associates told Flightglobal in a statement.

"Significant market adjustments have taken place since the announcement of the re-launch of WOW air. This contraction of air carriers has provided an increase in aircraft inventory previously not available in the late summer. WOW air will take this opportunity to acquire and reconfigure our launch aircraft in the best interests of our customers and shareholders," USAerospace Associates said.

In early September 2019, Ballarin announced that USAerospace Associates will take a 49% stake in bankrupt WOW air, acquiring its brand and certain tangible assets such as uniforms. Investors in Iceland will hold the rest of the capital to comply with European Union airline ownership rules. The company will be based at Washington Dulles airport but its route network, schedules, and fleet details have yet to be announced.

The recent bankruptcies of Thomas Cook Airlines UK (MT, Manchester Int'l), Aigle Azur...

A French court ordered the closure of XL Airways France (SE, Paris CDG) on October 4 after it declared insolvency, the AFP news agency has reported. A commercial court in Bobigny near Paris rejected a last-minute offer for the carrier and ordered that it be placed in judicial liquidation. Its 570 employees will now lose their jobs.

XL had halted all flights on September 30 and struggled to attract bids after being placed into receivership.

A last-minute takeover offer was filed on October 2, originating from Lu Azur, founded by Gérard Houa, one of the minority shareholders of Aigle Azur (ZI, Paris Orly), which itself entered into liquidation on September 27. Houa had been one of the declared potential buyers of Aigle Azur before his project was dismissed on the grounds that a shareholder could not be a candidate for the resumption of his own company.

Lu Azur said it was able to provide EUR30 million euros (USD33 million) to revive XL Airways, divided into two halves, EUR15 million (USD16.5 million) in equity...