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Icelandic cargo airline Bluebird Nordic shuts down 

Subsidiary of Avia Solutions Group victim of excess capacity, weak shipping demand

A Bluebird Nordic Boeing 737-400 cargo jet lands at the airport in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 5, 2022. The company discontinued operations late last month. (Photo: Shutterstock/Karolis Kavolelis)

The recent recovery of the air cargo market didn’t happen soon enough to save Iceland-based cargo airline Bluebird Nordic, which ceased operations late last month. 

The airline, which existed for 23 years and was acquired by Lithuanian conglomerate Avia Solutions Group in 2020, surrendered its air operator certificate to the Icelandic Civil Aviation Authority and is returning aircraft to lessors, trade publication ch-aviation first reported. The company confirmed in an email statement that it ceased operations on April 30.

Bluebird Nordic was a victim of rapid expansion, in response to soaring demand during the pandemic, just as the global freight market went into an 18-month cooldown. Demand hit bottom late last summer and has been on an upswing since, with five consecutive months of double-digit growth.

The airline, based at Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik, operated four Boeing 737-400 converted freighters and three 737-800 converted freighters that were acquired in the past year. The 737-800s replaced three older 737s. A Boeing 777-200 passenger aircraft, with seats removed but no full conversion for heavy freight, is also in storage at an airfield in Spain, according to tracking site Planespotters.net.


By late 2022 Bluebird had 17 aircraft, including three 777s that were expected to eventually undergo full conversion for carrying cargo on the upper deck. Management also publicly talked about further investments in converted freighters that would bring the 737-800 fleet to 25 units. In 2023, it sought to obtain an air operator certificate in Slovakia as part of its expansion plan in Europe and expressed interest in expanding to Latin America.

At least two of the 737-800s were owned by Tokyo Century Corp. and managed by Florida-based GA Telesis. 

Bluebird Nordic provided crewed aircraft to DHL, FedEx and UPS, as well as other cargo airlines. It also operated its own scheduled route between Rejkjavik and Dublin several times per week.

CEO Audrone Keinyte told ch-aviation that Bluebird went out of business because of low demand for airfreight. Global express carriers have been reducing flight activity and outsourced transportation in the past year as parcel volumes continue to shrink. UPS’ international daily volume, for example, shrank 5.8% in the first quarter.


The freight crisis has also engulfed other all-cargo operators. In the United States, iAero, a charter operator for DHL Express and the travel industry, closed its doors last month while Amerijet is feeling the financial pinch after rushing to expand only to see customers pull back shipping requirements.

Bluebird Nordic was founded in 1999 through the merger of several companies in Iceland and began flying two years later with a single 737-300. It went by the name Bluebird Cargo until 2018.

Avia Solutions Group includes cargo airlines BBN Airlines Indonesia, SmartLynx Airlines and Magma Aviation, charter brokers Chapman Freeborn and Arcus Air Logistics, and lessor AviaAM Leasing. 

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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won Environmental Journalist of the Year from the Seahorse Freight Association in 2014 and was the group's 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist by the Seahorse Freight Association. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com