Small Planet Airlines GmbH was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

headquartered in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and a subsidiary of now-defunct

Small Planet Airlines Small Planet Airlines was a Lithuanian leisure airline based at Vilnius Airport with further bases throughout Europe. It was the subsidiary of the Small Planet Group which also owned sister companies in Cambodia, Germany, Italy, and Poland, all ...

from Lithuania.

History

The airline was founded in 2015 and operated its first charter services out of

Düsseldorf Airport Düsseldorf Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Düsseldorf, ; until March 2013 ''Düsseldorf International Airport''; ) is the international airport of Düsseldorf, the capital of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is about north ...

using its parent's licence by October 2015. Along with its owner,

from Lithuania, which owns 80% of the German airline, and sister airline Small Planet Airlines (Poland), it belonged to the ''Small Planet Group''. The headquarters in

is expected to have up to 15 employees while each aircraft will be operated by 5 crews of 6; together that gives an expected overall employee count of around 75. The airline received its own German operations license on 13 May 2016 and operated its first flight ( Bremen to

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban Ar ...

) on the same day.airliners.de - "Small Planet Airlines takes off with German license"
13 May 2016 In January 2018, Small Planet Airlines Germany welcomed its one-millionth passenger. On 18 September 2018 Small Planet Airlines Germany filed for bankruptcy while planning to continue its operations during a restructuring. Shortly after, TUI announced plans to replace their charter operations at

Paderborn Lippstadt Airport Paderborn Lippstadt Airport (German: ''Flughafen Paderborn Lippstadt'') is a minor international airport in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe area in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. While the name implies a location within the city of Paderborn ...

with services operated by

TUI fly Deutschland TUI fly Deutschland, formerly ''TUIfly'', is a German leisure airline owned by the travel and tourism company TUI Group. It is headquartered at Hannover Airport with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutschland is part of TUI Gro ...

with more takeovers to be likely. Shortly after, Small Planet lost the operations for TUI from Leipzig Halle Airport as well, this time to Germania. On 31 October 2018, Small Planet Airlines Germany ceased all operations and returned most of the aircraft to their lessors while its parent company still negotiated the sale of its remaining assets.aerotelegraph.com - Small Planet gibt Flugzeuge an Leasingfirmen zurück
2 November 2018 In November 2018, these were planned to be bought up by ''SF Aviation Holding'' which also owns ''VLM Airlines Brussels'', however shortly after this deal fell through. On 28 November 2018 it was announced that Small Planet Airlines Germany had declared bankruptcy.

Destinations

Since May 2016, the company operated charter flights to various Southern European leisure destinations from its bases on behalf of travel groups like Thomas Cook and TUI.

Fleet

As of May 2018, Small Planet Airlines GmbH operated the following aircraft:

References

External links

Official website
{{Airlines of Germany Defunct airlines of Germany Airlines established in 2015 Airlines disestablished in 2018 2015 establishments in Germany German companies disestablished in 2018 German companies established in 2015 Defunct charter airlines