Why you need to be very careful when booking budget flights in Europe

There are dozens of budget airlines flying to small airports all over Europe, and further afield. 

If you want to fly to Rodez, or perhaps to Stavanger, there will be options to be found online. And the fares will be cheap.

The trouble is that these airlines go out of business with alarming regularity. 

The latest to go bust is Berlin-based budget airline Germania, which has ceased flying with immediate effect. 

The airline, which carried more than four million passengers a year across Europe, Africa and the Middle East, blamed rising fuel prices and currency fluctuations for its demise.

"We ultimately failed to successfully complete our financing efforts to meet short-term liquidity needs," said managing director Karsten Balke.

"We very much regret that, as a consequence, we had no choice but to file for bankruptcy."

The company said that passengers who had booked flights as part of a package should contact their tour operator to make alternative arrangements. Passengers who booked directly with the airline are not being offered replacement flights. So there goes your money. 

The Icelandic-owned, Danish-based budget airline Primera Air went out of business last October, while the collapse of Germania follows the demise of Air Berlin, which filed for insolvency in August 2017. I still have an Air Berlin frequent flyer card somewhere. Many of its routes were picked up by easyJet.