Cobalt Aero will no longer be serving passengers after it announced late on Wednesday that it will be suspending operations.
The airline was created in 2015 to fill in the gap left by Cyprus Airlines but barely managed to complete three years of existence.
2015 – Founding
Cobalt is founded. Grigoris Diakou is the company’s President and Andrew Madar is the CEO.
April 2016 – First aircraft
An Airbus 320 arrives in Larnaca to become the first member of Cobalt’s fleet.
18/05/2016 – Certification
On May 18, 2016 Cobalt AERO receives its certification by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
01/06/2018 – First flight
On June 1, 2016 Cobalt conducts a “welcoming flight” from Larnaca to Athens.
14/06/2018 – First tickets are sold
Cobalt starts selling tickets for flights to Athens, Dublin, Heraklion, Manchester, London and Thessaloniki.
07/07/2016 – First commercial flights
Cobalt starts commercial flights.
Summer 2016 – Delays
Long delays and other problems start appearing in Cobalt flights. Marios Demetriades, Transport Minister at the time, says that the Civil Aviation Authority will examine the issue.
31/10/2016 – Stranded passengers
22 passengers supposed to be flying with Cobalt from Thessaloniki to Larnaca, were not made aware of a change in the time of their flight and were left stranded in Thessaloniki.
04/03/2017 – Paphos-Athens route announced
Transport Minister, Marios Demetriades announces that Cobalt will start flying from Paphos airport. The decision was taken in order to fill in the gap left by Ryanair which terminated its Paphos-Athens route.
26/03/2017 – Flights to Tel Aviv
Cobalt starts flying to Tel Aviv.
First trip with Cobalt. Great service! Proud to lead an industry with 45% increase in traffic over last four years #jobcreation #growth pic.twitter.com/eot23HMwI9
— Marios Demetriades (@mariosde) November 27, 2017
01/01/2018 – Change of CEO
Andrew Madar steps down. Experienced Greek Cypriot pilot, Petros Souppouris becomes new CEO.
16/10/2018 – Bankruptcy rumours denied
Company spokesman, Philokypros Rousounides tells philenews that Cobalt will be bringing in new investors and denies rumours about financial problems.
16/10/2018 – Flights to Cairo
Egyptian newspapers report that Cobalt will start flying to Cairo by the end of 2018.
17/10/2018 – Operations suspended
At 11:50 pm on October 17, Cobalt announces that it will be ceasing all its operations, while calling all customers to not go to the airport. 280 employees are left without a job.
UPDATE: Statement released from #CobaltAir regarding their collapse. Please share so all affected passengers have correct information. #aviation #avgeek #cobalt pic.twitter.com/3r0xb2e3wL
— AvionicsUK (@Avionics_UK) October 18, 2018
