Montenegro Airlines has become the latest casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic, with all flights suspended as of December 26.
The Montenegrin flag carrier was founded in 1994, and has previously operated UK routes to both London’s Gatwick and Stansted airports.
Montenegro Airlines had been loss-making for some time, but, like many other airlines worldwide, was particularly affected by the global travel restrictions and fall in customer demand as a result of Covid-19.
In a statement on the carrier’s website it said:
“Due to the new circumstances related to the decision of the Government of Montenegro not to support the existence of a national airline in the future, and which has a very negative impact on the safety of continued air traffic, we estimated that the level of risk that Montenegro Airlines can not accept.
“We hereby inform you that as of December 26, 2020, we will completely suspend the planned traffic. The safety of passengers, crew and aircraft has been a priority for the company from its inception until today.
“Thank you to all our passengers for the years of trust, travel and friendship, and we apologize in advance to all to whom this decision on the work of MA, in the coming days and weeks will cause problems in the organization of travel that are or plan to begin.”
The airline served a number of destinations from its hubs at Podgoric and Tivat airports. Before the onset of Covid-19 Easyjet had been operating flights from Gatwick and Manchester to Tivat, while Ryanair served Podgorica from Stansted.
