Tailwind Air, a regional charter airline based in the state of New York, filed for bankruptcy protection at the Virginia Eastern Bankruptcy Court on January 15, 2026.
This decision comes less than two years after the operator wound down its short-lived scheduled seaplane service linking downtown New York to Boston and Washington DC. Since 2024, Tailwind Air had focused on operating on-demand charter services with a small fleet of executive aircraft.
Tailwind Air also had ambitious plans in the electric aircraft space, and, in 2021, it partnered with Airflow, a startup developing an electric regional aircraft which was later acquired by Electra.aero, in order to potentially electrify amphibious air services along the East Coast of the United States.
However, this small operator seems to have been unable to raise enough funds to sustain this operation. According to media reports, the airline’s liabilities are estimated to be between $5 and 10 million.
In December 2024, and following its withdrawal from the scheduled services market, Tailwind Air saw its Commuter Air Carrier Authorization revoked. In the months that followed, the airline also disposed of its entire jet fleet, which included one Cessna Citation CJ3 and several models of the Dassault Falcon jet family.
The future steps for Tailwind Air are currently unclear, and it is not known if the carrier will be able to successfully restructure.
AeroTime has contacted Tailwind Air for comment.