Ellinair Officially Declared Bankrupt by Thessaloniki Court

Greek airline Ellinair has been formally declared bankrupt after the Thessaloniki Court of Appeal accepted a long-running petition, with the decision registered in the General Commercial Registry (GEMI) on 22 July 2026.

The court overturned an earlier first-instance rejection and accepted the bankruptcy application originally filed on 14 July 2023 by a group of former employees. It set the date of cessation of payments as 9 July 2024, appointed Thessaloniki lawyer Georgios Goundelias as insolvency administrator, and ordered the sealing of the company’s assets.

Ellinair, founded in 2013 by Boris Mouzenidis as part of the Mouzenidis Travel group, specialised in leisure and charter flights linking Greece with Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, as well as domestic routes. The carrier grew rapidly before the pandemic, at one point carrying over one million passengers in a single year. Operations were suspended in 2020–2021 amid COVID-19 restrictions and the death of its founder. A subsequent ownership change and attempts to restart as an ACMI provider were ultimately unsuccessful.

The company had received approximately €6.8 million of an approved COVID-related state aid package of up to €9.2 million. The newly appointed administrator has already begun tracing these funds through Greek banks, as they are expected to form the primary source for payments to employees, creditors and the Greek state.

Ellinair had not operated commercial flights for several years prior to the formal bankruptcy declaration.

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