Spanair Shuts Down, Cancels All Flights

Barcelona-based Spanair cancelled all of its flights Friday night and announced plans to file for bankruptcy protection.

More than 22,000 passengers were impacted by the shutdown, which resulted in chaos at many Spanish airports.

“The company would like to apologize to everyone affected by this announcement and thank the aviation authorities for their help and support,” the airline said yesterday.

The regional government of northeastern Catalonia owns 85.6% of the airline, which has 2,000 employees.  SAS, the airline’s former owner, has a 10.9% stake.  The airline had been negotiating a takeover with Qatar Airways but those talks ended on Friday. At that point, the regional government declined to continue to support the airline any further.

Spanair operated flights to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East from 15 airports in Spain.