PrivatAir was a charter carrier which specialised in operating premium heavy Boeing 737BBJ and Airbus A319s. PrivatAir used to operate Pune to Frankfurt route on behalf of Lufthansa for a decade. But in August this year, Lufthansa cancelled the deal and temporarily closed the route. Lufthansa than restarted the route with its own intra-Europe configured Airbus A319.

But Lufthansa quickly ran up the reputation of the Worst Business Class with their own A319 for long from pax-ex point of view. So they negotiated a new deal and PrivatAir was supposed to take over the route from February 4, 2019.

Yesterday, both PrivatAir Switzerland and Germany filed for insolvency. According to the press release,

It is with great sadness that PrivatAir SA, Switzerland, announces today that it has filed to commence insolvency proceeding in Switzerland. Likewise, its subsidiary PrivatAir GmbH in Germany has also filed for insolvency today.

Over the past few weeks, a number of events have had a significant impact on the companies’ future business forecast and viability, which forced the companies to file for insolvency.

Lufthansa will continue to operate the route till February 1, 2019, with their mainline Airbus A319.

But clearly, with the sudden development, Lufthansa has not figured out what to do after February 1, 2019. For now, Lufthansa has pulled down the flight from February 4, 2019. Passengers still have the option to connect via other Indian cities like New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.

Will Lufthansa again roster their mainline A319 on this route, bringing back the Worst Business Class in the World? Or do you think, Lufthansa should take over PrivatAir’s crew and fleet as they can use them on routes like these?