Low cost Spanish airline LTE suspends flights

[October 17th 2008]

Budget Spanish airline LTE appears to be the latest casualty of the global financial crisis as it announces it has suspended its services.

In an announcement on its website LTE states: "due to the financial situation of the company, that make it difficult to meet the operational expenses in the next days, we have had to suspend our charter and scheduled operations".

The statement continues: "LTE is doing everything to minimise the impact of this suspension of services on its clients and providers. After 20 years operating with maximum dedication to our clients it just was not possible to avoid this situation given world events lately. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause to our passengers, clients and suppliers".

LTE International Airways has bases in Palma de Mallorca, the Canary Islands and Milan. The airline celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2007 and has operated charter flights for a number of UK tour operators including Thomas Cook, Thomson and First Choice.

In July LTE started operating weekly flights from Norwich airport to the popular Spanish holiday destinations of Palma de Mallorca, Alicante and Barcelona. The airline planned to continue the flights throughout the winter.

At the time the flights from Norwich airport were launched, LTE managing director Michael Harrington said: "We are genuinely excited about launching these new flights. These will be our first scheduled flights from a regional airport in the UK and we have chosen Norwich because of its strong local catchment area and the support we have had from the airport. We want to establish ourselves as the reference airline for Spanish destinations from Norwich and we are looking forward to extending the range of destinations served and frequency of flights".

Three other Spanish airlines - Futura, Lagunair and Flysur - have gone bust in the last few months as airlines have been hit by the credit crunch.