Jet Charter Company Shuts Down

Aero Lloyd, the biggest independent German charter carrier with 12% of the market, shut down and filed for insolvency Oct. 16 after its main creditor and 66% shareholder, Bavarian state bank BayernLB, withdrew support and declined to provide financing for a management-proposed restructuring of the struggling airline. Aero Lloyd bad 1,400 employees, operated a fleet of 21 A320s/A321s and carried 3.5 million passengers last year. Plans reportedly were underway at this writing to revive it as a low-cost carrier. Its Austrian subsidiary is already the target of a buyout by Niki Lauda, who intends to relaunch it as an LCC.