Ascend Airways, a UK-based airline that provided aircraft to operators including Oman Air, Air Sierra Leone and TUI Airways, has collapsed into liquidation and halted all operations. The airline grounded flights with immediate effect on April 27, after trading for just three years under its present name.
Staff were notified of the closure on the same day and received letters confirming the company had entered liquidation. A public statement was held back until a flight from Muscat (YD187) touched down safely at London Stansted Airport. Those carriers remain unaffected by the failure, as Ascend ran services on their behalf.
In an internal email, the firm blamed economic pressures, soaring UK costs and a shortage of contracts as factors behind the failure. An insider told the Sun: 'It's to do with the economy, we couldn't get contracts, the UK is a lot more expensive than Europe. The fuel situation had a massive effect on it as well.'
Workers now face uncertainty over wages, with one saying: 'We're not going to get paid for May and we have to go through the liquidators.' The collapse has left staff disgruntled, especially after the airline had recently taken on additional crew members. 'We were quite surprised they took on more crew, I think they were banking on getting the IOSA,' the insider added.
The decline accelerated when the airline allegedly missed payments to its leasing company, triggering a rapid collapse. Hopes of obtaining an IOSA licence in March, which would have enabled expansion into international routes, were dashed. Efforts to maintain operations also fell through after prospective partners declined to take on sufficient aircraft.
Ascend Airways initially launched in 2004 under Synergy Aviation before rebranding in 2023. At the point of its collapse, it ran a fleet of one Boeing 737-800 and six Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.
