BRA to stop scheduled passenger-flights

As of 1 January 2025, BRA will stop all of its scheduled passenger-flights. As the airline is facing a permanent lower demand of passengers since the pandemic, it will transform itself into an ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance)-specialist.

BRA has also secured its first customer and will, as of the same date, start flying on behalf of SAS for seven years. It will mainly operate out of SAS' hub at Stockholm-Arlanda but will also operate from Copenhagen-Kastrup. It's currently unclear how many aircraft of the fleet will be used for the new SAS-operations.

BRA has a fleet made-up of fourteen ATR72-600s. It also has a subsidiary called Braathens International Airways, which operates a fleet of three Airbus A319s and three A320s on charter and ACMI-operations.

The decision of SAS to partner with BRA has a significant impact on Nordica. It's subsidiary Xfly is currently operating seven ATR72-600s and seven CRJ900s for SAS. Although exact details are a bit unclear, it seems SAS has cancelled its agreement with Xfly per 1 January 2025, leaving Xfly scrambling for new customers. As the time to do so is quite short, it might mean bankruptcy for the airline according to a spokesman from the Estonian government.

Photo by Anton Homma.