Sterling Airlines goes bankrupt

Danish budget carrier Sterling Airlines is to file for bankruptcy on Wednesday, the company said in a statement.

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The move leaves a large number of passengers stranded with worthless airline tickets as the company has cancelled all its flights.

“Customers who have directly purchased their tickets on Sterling’s website will unfortunately not be refunded neither will their return flights. You therefore have to book your return flights with another airline company,” said the company in a statement on their website.

Among Wednesday’s cancelled flights are a 7:00am departure from Stockolm’s Arlanda airport to Alicante, a 7:10am departure to Copenhagen, a 10:15am flight to Malaga, and another 4:00pm flight to Copenhagen.

Cancelled Sterling flights which were due to land at Arlanda on Wednesday include an 8:20am arrival from Copenhagen, a 3:35pm flight from Alicante and a 4:40pm arrival from Nice.

Sterling instructs passengers who purchased tickets with a credit card to turn to the company or bank which issued the card to seek refunds for unused portions of Sterling tickets.

Those who purchased Sterling tickets for travel on Norwegian airlines should contact Norwegian directly.

In explaining the cause of the bankruptcy, Sterling said a slowdown in the travel market combined with rising oil prices had started putting financial strains on the company nearly a year ago on the heels of merger with Maersk Air.

Despite “fighting a battle to keep the company alive”, the airline could not withstand the effects of the current financial crisis, which foiled Sterling’s efforts to secure additional financing.

“The inevitable result is that Sterling Airlines A/S has no option but to file for bankruptcy,” said the company.