Wow Air has cancelled its morning flight from Gatwick to Reykjavik as fears grow of its imminent collapse. Last week a US investment group broke off talks about a rescue for the financially troubled airline. Talks resumed Wednesday with Wow Air’s rival, Icelandair, about a takeover. But Sunday evening the potential rescuer announced: “Icelandair Group has decided that its possible involvement in Wow Air’s operations...will not materialise.” Later, the CE of Icelandair Group, Bogi Nils Bogason, said: “The financial position and operations are such that we did not see any reason to continue.” Wow Air has also cancelled trips from Reykjavik to Chicago and Pittsburgh Monday, with links to Brussels and Barcelona grounded Tuesday. <br/>
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Norwegian is delaying the potential sale of 6 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and preparing to wet-lease capacity to make up the shortfall created by the grounding of the 737 MAX. In Europe, Norwegian, which has a fleet of 18 MAXs, is the most affected by the ban, and the airline said Monday it was taking “precautionary measures" to make sure the passengers reach their destinations. “In addition to continuing combining flights and reallocating aircraft, the company has decided to delay potential sales of 6 Boeing 737-800 aircraft and use available 787 capacity on high-volume routes, which will add flexibility. The company is further preparing to wet-lease aircraft to fill the remaining capacity gap,” the carrier said. Norwegian CE Bjorn Kjos said the airline would seek compensation from Boeing over the MAX groundings. <br/>
Germania will be permanently shut down, its administrator Rüdiger Wienberg said Monday. “It was clear from the beginning given the circumstances that it would be extremely difficult to rescue [the airline],” Wienberg wrote. “Germania was grounded, we had no owned aircraft and no money to pay for lease rates. We rolled out the red carpet for interested parties, but unfortunately no one could or wanted to walk across it.” Germania had filed for bankruptcy Feb 5 and immediately stopped flying. According to Wienberg, he has been talking to 1 potential investor for the flight operations part of the business and 2 other potential investors for the MRO division. Separately, he aimed at continuing the business as a wet-leasing operation, but with lessors taking back more and more aircraft that turned out to be impossible. <br/>
Cash-strapped Fastjet said Monday it has reached an agreement to further extend the repayment date on its unsecured loans. Fastjet in June had entered agreements with Annunaki Investments and SSCG Africa Holdings, following which the airline lent US$5m from its Zimbabwe unit to Annunaki in return for a $2m loan to Fastjet from SSCG. The airline has been facing a multitude of issues mainly relating to its dwindling cash pile and has struggled to secure cash through fundraising and equity refinancing to continue operations. The airline had entered into the loan agreements with Annunaki and SSCG so that Fastjet can access a portion of its restricted cash held in Zimbabwe. Fastjet now expects a repayment from SSCG by June 30, from the earlier agreed date of March 31, the company said Monday. <br/>