After Italian aviation authority’s threats to suspend Ernest Airlines license if it fails to hand over the required documents, according to European Union’s Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008, the airline is now seeming to crumble apart on its own as it had stored three aircraft of its fleet of four.
Three Airbus A320 aircraft that are leased to the airline were ferried to various locations within the last week, Flightradar24.com data indicates. EI-GCC, belonging to French leasing company Macquarie AirFinance, was shipped to Naples Capodichino Airport, Italy (NAP) on January 4 with the one-off flight number EG9470. EI-LIN, which is owned by Blackbird Capital, is stored in Amman Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan (AMM) since January 3, while EI-LIX is sat on the ground in Tarbes, France (LDE) since January 6, 2020. Planespotters.net data also shows that the three aircraft are stored, rather than active.
That leaves Ernest Airlines with a single jet to operate with, an Airbus A319. EI-FVG has been very active over the past few days. On January 7, the jet was scheduled to complete seven flights, none of which arrived on their scheduled time. As of 5:00 PM (UTC +2), the same A319 completed three flights, flying between Italy, Albania and Ukraine.
Ernest Airlines’ press representatives were not immediately available for comment.
