Corendon to cut fleet to 21 aircraft and trim summer capacity by a fifth

Corendon Airlines will shrink its fleet for next summer, cutting capacity by about a fifth from this year. Sales chief Paul Schwaiger said the holiday carrier plans to fly 21 aircraft next summer. This season it has 28 owned jets and two wet-leased aircraft across its Turkish, Maltese and Dutch subsidiaries.

Schwaiger did not rule out raising that figure in spring if bookings recover, saying it would be clear in January and February. The airline will still serve many German airports with leisure destinations, though on a smaller scale than in recent years.

High fuel prices are the main reason. Corendon is moving away from covering as many routes as possible toward concentrating on those that fill up. A load factor of 70 to 80 percent means the airline burns money, Schwaiger said.

The cuts come after what Corendon calls a positive summer. Schwaiger said the carrier flew two percent more passengers than a year earlier while average ticket prices fell four percent, which he attributed to geopolitical challenges. One aircraft is also due to get a new livery.