Another regional airline files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidates
After a domino effect of smaller airlines filing for bankruptcy protection in the fall of 2025, the first airline shutdowns of the new year have already started emerging.
On the fourth day of January, Royal Air Philippines abruptly announced that it was suspending all commercial flights, in a situation that left approximately 4,000 travelers with tickets booked up until March 2026 with canceled flights.
A day later on Jan. 5, Indian charter carrier Dove Airlines entered voluntary liquidation after multiple failed attempts to find an investor to turn its finances around. The airline has not operated flights since 2022, when it lost its last Cessna CitationJet/CJ/M2 jet to creditors.
Envisioned as Britain's first zero-emission airline, Ecojet shutting down without ever taking flight
Envisioned as the world's first zero-emission regional airline by British green investor Dale Vince, Ecojet Airlines never got off the ground, as it now becomes the latest regional carrier to enter voluntary liquidation in the British equivalent of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The initial plan unveiled by Vince and former pilot Brent Smith in 2023 was to purchase old Twin Otter and ATR 72 aircraft and then convert their kerosene engines for hydrogen-electric ones developed by aircraft maker ZeroAvia. The ultimate goal was to run Britain's first zero-emission flights between cities such as Edinburgh and Southampton.
Related: Another airline files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, all flights canceled
But the complexity of the project quickly ran into financing problems, and deadlines to demonstrate progress to regulators kept being pushed back throughout 2024. While Vince funded the first steps toward getting Ecojet to take off — in 2023, he purchased 70 hydrogen-electric engines from ZeroAvia — the plan relied on bringing in additional investors who never showed up.
In January 2025, Ecojet laid off almost all of the staff hired in the early stages and is now opting to put the kibosh on the entire project with a voluntary liquidation.
Image source: Shutterstock
"Ecojet was a start-up business and has no material assets"
On Jan. 14, liquidators Paul Dounis and Mark Harper from London-based insolvency firm Opus were appointed to oversee the bankruptcy process in the hopes of recouping some losses for creditors and ensuring former employees receive some of the benefits to which they were entitled in the abrupt shutdown.
These airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2025:
- Spirit Airlines (Spirit Aviation Holdings, Inc.): Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time on August 29,2025.
- Ravn Alaska: Ceased operations in August 2025 after earlier Chapter 11 proceedings; shut down flights and folded into other operations such as New Pacific.
- Corporate Air: Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (restructuring) in September 2025 as part of a planned sale, according to Bondoro.
- Play Airlines: The Reykjavik-based airline shut down operations and entered involuntary bankruptcy in September 2025.
- Braathens Airlines:The airline was forced to file for bankruptcy and canceled all flights in September 2025.
"Ecojet was a start-up business and has no material assets," Opus wrote in its assessment of the insolvency. "The members have elected to fund the liquidation process to ensure that the company's employees receive their full statutory entitlements."
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In his own statement on the project, Vince classified it as an honest effort to advance zero-emission aviation.
It ultimately took "longer than we hoped to get the technology and regulatory pieces of the puzzle in alignment, and so we're pausing work at this time," he added.
Related: Holiday airline declares bankruptcy, all flights canceled
