International airline shutting down, all flights canceled

The start of fall has been a troublesome season for a quantity of smaller and low-cost airways around the world.

Scandinavian funds carriers Play and Braathens both left vacationers across Europe stranded after abruptly shutting down all operations within a few days of each other, while constitution airways Verijet and Kachina Air also filed for chapter in U.S. courts this October.

As a ultimate kicker to spherical off the month, the United Kingdom-based funds provider Eastern Airways canceled all of its flights to northern England and Scotland on October 27. While the official documentation submitted to British chapter court asks for more time to restructure, the future of the airline based out of East Midlands appears more and more bleak as a number of of its planes have already been returned to their leasing corporations.

As all these smaller carriers wrestle to keep afloat in Europe, an Asian airline giant has also made the selection to axe one of its manufacturers.

More generally referred to by the acronym ANA, Japan’s largest airline All Nippon Airways is discontinuing the low-cost AirJapan model it launched only in 2022.

Established to compete with newly launched low-cost airline Zipair Tokyo, AirJapan flew a fleet of two Boeing 787-8 planes to Tokyo’s Narita Airport (NRT) from Singapore, Seoul, and Bangkok.

On Oct. 30, ANA revealed it would shut down the airline to instead operate only as a twin model with the broader ANA and its more established low-cost airline Peach Aviation.

Related: Low-cost airline cancels all flights, no refunds

Ultimately, competitors from other Asian low-cost airways such as Singapore Airlines’ Scoot and AirAsia X left AirJapan struggling to convey in the passenger numbers to justify the need for a separate model.

Last August, Australian low-cost provider Jetstar equally shut down its Asia department due to high bills and supply-chain issues, relative to inadequate site visitors.

AirJapan’s plans to develop to new routes had been also hampered by delays of new Boeing 737 Max orders (when these do get delivered, they may instead go to the wants of ANA).

In a assertion on the model consolidation, the ANA Group said the choice goals to better “optimize the allocation of the group’s resources.”

• Ravn Alaska: Ceased operations in August 2025 after earlier Chapter 11 proceedings; shut down flights and folded into other operations.

• Spirit Airlines: Filed for Chapter 11 chapter for the second time on August 29, 2025.

• Play Airlines: Filed for chapter procedures in Iceland on September 29, 2025, canceled all flights.

• Braathens Airlines: Filed for chapter for its Airbus operations in Sweden on September 30, 2025.

• Verijet: Filed for Chapter 7 chapter in October 2025, canceled all flights and ceased operations.

• Kachina Air, Inc.: Filed for Chapter 11 chapter on October 24, 2025.

The three routes might be phased out by March 2026, with the ultimate flights back to Narita in Tokyo working on March 29.

More on journey:

“While we have operated flights under both the AirJapan and ANA brands, we will operate ANA branded flights exclusively from the next fiscal year onward,” ANA announced on Oct. 30. “We appreciate your loyal patronage until the final day of AirJapan brand’s operations.”

On its web site, AirJapan states that vacationers might be ready to continue reserving up until the ultimate flights, while anybody who has already booked journey past March 2026 will obtain a full refund.

“No special procedures are required,” AirJapan advises vacationers who have current bookings before that date. “Please board your flight as scheduled.”

Related: Airlines offer stranded vacationers rescue fares after sudden shutdown

This story was initially reported by TheRoad on Oct 31, 2025, where it first appeared in the Travel part. Add TheRoad as a Preferred Source by clicking right here.