Cimber closing down by April next year

All of its 130 employees given notice

Sep 29, 2014

The Danish-owned airline Cimber has announced it will close down by April 1 next year. It has given six months' notice to all of its 130 employees.

Cimber explained it had been forced to close after the Scandinavian airline giant SAS decided not to continue their leasing agreement next year.

“SAS has decided against extending our current agreement concerning four CRJ 200 aircraft from April next year,” Jørgen Nielsen, the CEO and co-owner of Cimber, told the travel website standby.dk.

”I am terribly sad about it, but after careful considerations we have decided to take the worst possible consequence and completely close down from April.”

Working towards survival
Cimber will continue working towards possibly securing new agreements that might ensure the survival of the airline – which was formed in the wake of Cimber Sterling’s bankruptcy in 2012 when three Cimber Sterling employees, including Nielsen, bailed out the bankrupt airline and continued it on as Cimber.

The Cimber leadership sees the 130 layoffs as a necessary step should the airline end up closing down, but hopes the airline will have enough support to finish off its current contracts in the first three months of 2015.

Cimber has a hanger and maintenance facilities at Copenhagen Airport – where all of its flights operate from – but the airline also has activities at the airports in Aarhus and Billund.