Mystery crash
Allegations have emerged that key figures in the budget carrier's team had been plotting to wind up the airline for the last five months while continuing to sell tickets, lease aircraft and purchase fuel.
The airline was grounded just over a week ago when potential investors PlaneConsult, who were working with Crescent Venture partners, backed out of a $10 (zl.31) million cash injection.
The Gazeta Wyborcza daily claimed to have acquired documents showing that some shareholders signed an agreement to move company assets to a new firm to be called AirPolonia LLC. The 'old' AirPolonia would only be left with debts.
The new entity would then receive support from the Irish-Jordanian Crescent fund. Passengers would not have noticed any difference, but other stake holders would have been hit heavily. However, shareholders failed to agree other details and Crescent eventually withdrew, saying it could not waste time.
It seems the writing was on the wall for the doomed airline for some time. In the days leading up to its collapse, AirPolonia stopped paying a local transport firm for transferring its passengers. Despite this, passengers were caught off-guard while waiting in departure lounges all over Poland and Europe with worthless tickets in hand. According to the president of AirPolonia, Jan Litwiński, there are around 53,000 people with tickets who have yet to travel, and these are unlikely to be refunded, although SkyEurope Airlines agreed to carry stranded passengers.
The grounding of Polonia's three leased Boeings may have broader consequences for the airline market. "I hope that this will not undermine clients' trust in flying in general," says Piotr Kociołek, president of Polishwings (formerly working under the name Nowy Przewoźnik, or New Carrier). Low-cost operators typically achieve lower reliability and punctuality than traditional ones, and now the threat of bankruptcy could be added to their woes.
However, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Office, Katarzyna Krasnodębska, dismisses this, claiming that previous bankruptcies of traditional carriers did not have a negative effect on the industry.
Yannis Capodistrias, from British-based low-cost operator easyJet, estimates a small airline must budget for a few million in losses over the winter months. Naturally, small companies cannot take this burden in the long run, as the AirPolonia debacle shows.
"AirPolonia just wasn't big enough and lacked money," says Capodistrias. The answer then is to consolidate. "There could be even 12 times too many airlines in Europe," he says, forecasting some major moves in the industry. "We've only seen the tip of the iceberg."
Both PlaneConsult and Crescent declined to comment on the decision not to invest in AirPolonia.
The airline was grounded just over a week ago when potential investors PlaneConsult, who were working with Crescent Venture partners, backed out of a $10 (zl.31) million cash injection.
The Gazeta Wyborcza daily claimed to have acquired documents showing that some shareholders signed an agreement to move company assets to a new firm to be called AirPolonia LLC. The 'old' AirPolonia would only be left with debts.
The new entity would then receive support from the Irish-Jordanian Crescent fund. Passengers would not have noticed any difference, but other stake holders would have been hit heavily. However, shareholders failed to agree other details and Crescent eventually withdrew, saying it could not waste time.
It seems the writing was on the wall for the doomed airline for some time. In the days leading up to its collapse, AirPolonia stopped paying a local transport firm for transferring its passengers. Despite this, passengers were caught off-guard while waiting in departure lounges all over Poland and Europe with worthless tickets in hand. According to the president of AirPolonia, Jan Litwiński, there are around 53,000 people with tickets who have yet to travel, and these are unlikely to be refunded, although SkyEurope Airlines agreed to carry stranded passengers.
The grounding of Polonia's three leased Boeings may have broader consequences for the airline market. "I hope that this will not undermine clients' trust in flying in general," says Piotr Kociołek, president of Polishwings (formerly working under the name Nowy Przewoźnik, or New Carrier). Low-cost operators typically achieve lower reliability and punctuality than traditional ones, and now the threat of bankruptcy could be added to their woes.
However, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Office, Katarzyna Krasnodębska, dismisses this, claiming that previous bankruptcies of traditional carriers did not have a negative effect on the industry.
Yannis Capodistrias, from British-based low-cost operator easyJet, estimates a small airline must budget for a few million in losses over the winter months. Naturally, small companies cannot take this burden in the long run, as the AirPolonia debacle shows.
"AirPolonia just wasn't big enough and lacked money," says Capodistrias. The answer then is to consolidate. "There could be even 12 times too many airlines in Europe," he says, forecasting some major moves in the industry. "We've only seen the tip of the iceberg."
Both PlaneConsult and Crescent declined to comment on the decision not to invest in AirPolonia.
