Flybondi Files for Creditor Protection After 57 Days Without a Flight
Flybondi, the Argentine low-cost airline that once carried roughly one in six domestic passengers in the country, has asked a court for protection from its creditors after 57 days without operating a flight. The company, legally FB Líneas Aéreas S.A., filed for what Argentine law calls a concurso preventivo de acreedores on Friday 2 October 2026, according to reports published in Argentina on 3 and 5 October. The court has not yet ruled on whether to open the proceedings.
The filing puts a formal frame around a collapse that has played out over most of 2026: cancelled flights, a shrinking fleet, frozen bank accounts, unpaid staff and a website that cannot sell tickets. This article sets out what the filing and the surrounding reporting say, and what remains open.
What was filed, and where
According to Aviacionline, Infobae and La Nación, the petition was lodged by the law firm Grispo and assigned to National Commercial Court No. 24 in Buenos Aires, under Judge Guillermo Mario Pesaresi, with the case handled through Secretariat No. 47. A preventive creditor proceeding is Argentina's reorganisation mechanism: the debtor asks to negotiate a restructuring of its liabilities under judicial supervision while claims are verified. According to Infobae, the filing states that the company seeks to negotiate with creditors the restructuring of its liabilities under judicial supervision.
Aviacionline reports that the court has yet to decide whether the company can continue operating while the process runs. The same report says a request to consolidate the case with the concurrent proceedings of a sister company, OCA, has not been granted. Infobae and La Nación place OCA's case in Commercial Court No. 22.
An airline that has not flown since early August
The most striking figure in the filing is the length of the stoppage. Aviacionline puts the last flight at approximately 6 August, which is consistent with the 57 days reported by all three outlets. Aviación al Día, in an August analysis, had already counted 14 consecutive days without commercial operations by 20 August.
The fleet has shrunk sharply. Aviacionline says the airline went from 13 aircraft to three, and that the remaining three are grounded. Infobae and La Nación agree that three aircraft remain in Argentina and that ten have been returned to lessors. Infobae adds that some of the returned aircraft still carry Argentine registration and remain in the country while redelivery is completed, and that two aircraft outside Argentina carry about US$5.5 million in maintenance arrears.
The airline's website is offline, according to Aviacionline and La Nación, meaning tickets cannot be sold and reservations cannot be processed.
What the traffic data shows
Infobae, citing Argentina's civil aviation authority ANAC, gives a before-and-after comparison for August:
- August 2025: 254,533 passengers, a market share of 17%.
- August 2026: 1,865 passengers, a market share of 0.1%.
Infobae describes this as a year-on-year fall of more than 252,000 passengers. Aviacionline separately reports that from 1 July to the date of filing only 17.7% of scheduled operations were flown.
Over the whole of 2026, Aviacionline and La Nación report roughly 2,400 cancelled flights affecting about 383,000 passengers. Aviación al Día had put the figures at more than 2,400 cancellations and around 400,000 affected passengers in August.
How much is owed
Reports differ in the way they total the debt, and the figures below are as each outlet presented them.
Infobae says the claims publicly identified come to about 4 billion Argentine pesos, or around 4.6 billion pesos once interest and the costs of attachments are included. Aviacionline, by contrast, estimates total debt at approximately US$120 million, with assets representing less than 10% of liabilities. That is Aviacionline's estimate and is not a figure from the court.
The largest identified creditors are state bodies. Aviacionline reports that the tax authority ARCA claims about 1.525 billion pesos in unpaid taxes and withholdings, and that ANAC seeks about 1.5 billion pesos in unpaid airport security fees. La Nación says ARCA and ANAC placed liens on the company's accounts between August and September, each for more than 1.5 billion pesos. Infobae also lists obligations to the air navigation provider EANA, the ground-handling company Intercargo, fuel suppliers, aircraft lessors and maintenance providers.
Aviacionline adds 27 rejected cheques totalling more than 2.9 billion pesos, and a claim by Hotel Presidente of about 660.7 million pesos for services rendered between December 2025 and June 2026. Aviación al Día, in August, reported about US$25 million in overdue aircraft lease debts.
Passengers and refunds
The passenger bill is the part most visible to the public, and the estimates vary. Aviacionline puts the passenger debt at approximately US$27 million, based on an average ticket price of US$70 per segment across the roughly 383,000 affected passengers. La Nación reports an estimate above US$19 million, based on a minimum of US$50 per passenger. Aviación al Día had cited US$19 million in unrefunded ticket liabilities in August. The differences come from the assumed ticket value, not from different passenger counts.
In practical terms, a creditor proceeding generally means claims are verified and paid within the restructuring framework rather than on demand. The outlets reviewed here do not set out a refund timetable, and none reports that the court has ordered refunds.
Staff left unpaid
Aviacionline reports more than 900 employee terminations affecting about 1,000 families, with wages for June and July unpaid, along with partial bonuses, severance and voluntary-retirement compensation. It adds that employees who kept their jobs are also not being paid. Aviación al Día had counted about 800 active staff without salaries and more than 700 former employees alleging non-payment of severance in August.
La Nación quotes a worker representative, Franco Vázquez: "The company is in default in every sense: with severance, indemnities."
Ownership: a transfer that was never completed
Aviacionline reports that Cartesian Capital Group remains the formal majority shareholder, while COC Global Enterprise assumed operational control after investing US$70 million in 2025. A planned share transfer that would have consolidated the change of control has not been completed, according to the same report.
Infobae adds that COC Global, an investment fund that put in more than US$70 million in May 2025, demanded action from its co-shareholder Cartesian in August 2026 after ARCA froze the company's bank accounts and prevented operating payments.
The filing itself, as described by Aviacionline, acknowledges that any restructuring needs new capital for fuel, wages, maintenance, insurance and aircraft. That capital is not currently available, and no public reactivation plan has been presented, the outlet reports.
The regulator's position
Aviación al Día reported in August that ANAC had kept the airline's operating certificate in place, saying it lacked legal mechanisms for a preventive suspension. The outlet contrasted this with Brazil, which restricted Flybondi ticket sales on certain routes.
What happens next
Several points remain open as of 7 October:
- The court's decision. The judge must decide whether to open the proceedings and whether the company may keep operating during them.
- Consolidation with OCA. The request to join the two cases was not granted, so the two proceedings run separately for now.
- A source of new capital. The filing itself says restructuring depends on funding that does not yet exist.
- The shareholder question. The unfinished share transfer leaves the formal ownership and the operational control with different parties.
- The operating certificate. None of the outlets reviewed reports a decision by ANAC to change the carrier's certificate status since the filing.
For travellers, the practical position is that Flybondi is not selling or operating flights, and refund claims are likely to be handled as part of the creditor process. Passengers with cancelled bookings would normally also look at their card issuer or travel insurer, though the outlets reviewed do not address those routes.
For Argentine aviation, the loss of a carrier that held 17% of the August 2025 market leaves capacity to be absorbed by others. None of the reports reviewed here quantifies how much of that traffic competitors have taken since.
Sources
- Aviacionline, "Flybondi se presentó en concurso preventivo de acreedores tras 57 días sin operar"
- Infobae, "Flybondi se presentó en concurso preventivo para hacer frente a su deuda" (5 October 2026)
- La Nación, "Flybondi se presentó en concurso preventivo de acreedores" (5 October 2026)
- Aviación al Día, "Anatomy of Flybondi's collapse: fleet grounding, website outage and millions in debt" (August 2026)