The Turkish airline Onur Air is again in severe turbulence, because the civil aviation authority announced to the carrier that the AOC will no longer be extended. Lessors have withdrawn more machines. Apparently, intensive rescue and sales attempts have failed.

Onur Air is currently facing the most difficult days in the company's history, as it is currently no longer possible to meet the criteria required for the renewal of the AOC and operating license. The corona pandemic has financially bleeding the carrier, which has been on the market for a long time and has so far been able to cope with numerous turbulences.

The once extensive route network has shrunk to the domestic Istanbul-Antalya route since March 2020 and even this was still operated sporadically. The sale of flight tickets via the company's own website is currently suspended.

The owners and management have been trying to find a buyer for Onur Air since March 2020. Apparently the project was not (yet) successful because the civil aviation authority of Turkey is now losing patience. The carrier has submitted a request for an extension of the deadline, but it is questionable whether this will be approved without further evidence of the improved financial capacity.

Planes were seized and lessors took back their property

In the summer of 2021, Onur Air caused a sensation, because Antalya Airport has due to unpaid bills put eight machines on the chain. Around this incident, Lessoren withdrew their machines. Officially, no lessor wanted to comment on this, but in secret it was said that outstanding payments were the cause.

This has continued in the last few days, because AerCap had the TC-OCV fly out to Tashkent on December 27, 2021. The TC-OCN was transferred to Limes on Wednesday. According to the Turkish Civil Aviation Authority, only the TC-OCO is currently registered on the Onur Air AOC. For how much longer? That will probably be decided in the next few hours and days.

Some Onur Air machines have not left Turkey since the corona grounding, but were instead recycled by the aircraft owners on the spot, i.e. cannibalized for the purpose of obtaining spare parts. This makes the exact whereabouts of the machines previously used by this carrier a little confusing.

Employees have been on unpaid vacations for a long time - Holiday Europe future also unclear

Before the corona pandemic, Onur Air helped set up Holiday Europe in Bulgaria. With this charter airline one wanted to get better access to the EU market. The aircraft used so far came from the holdings of the Turkish partner. Holiday Europe has not flown a lot since Onur Air's massive slump.

In the event of a permanent collapse of the Turkish carrier, it is considered unlikely that the Bulgarian branch Holiday Europe will “get through”. This already announced the drastic reduction of the fleet on, but if the parent company collapses, it will not continue in Bulgaria without an investor or new owner.

For the approximately 1.700 employees of Onur Air, the possibly imminent withdrawal and AOC and operating license should only be of minor importance, because these have been in place since spring 2021 on unpaid vacations. Since these - as the name suggests - are without payment, almost all of them have already looked for new jobs in order to secure the advancement of themselves and their families. The situation is similar in Bulgaria at the Holiday Europe subsidiary.