COVID-19 Forces TransStates Airlines to Cease Operations April 1

Trans States Airlines, which announced last month that it would be shuttering at the end of the year due to consolidation and a pilot shortage, has told its employees that it will go out of business nine months earlier, on April 1. It could be the first US airline to fall victim to the coronavirus crippling the industry.

“It’s difficult to articulate or even comprehend the speed at which the coronavirus has changed our industry and our world,” president of Trans States Holdings Rick Leach writes in a memo to employees on March 17. “We received word late last night that the immediate cuts to our schedule are far deeper than we feared.”

“We knew that the wind-down would be accelerated, but were confident that we could continue to fly for United for some months. Yet now, less than one month after our original announcement, we now have less than two weeks of flying remaining. It hardly seems possible,” he adds.