The former regional feeder carrier, which plans to fly its normal schedule for now, had been struggling with high fuel prices. Energy costs hit the airline particularly hard because of its reliance on inefficient 50-seat regional jets.
"They didn't have the right strategy," said Jim Corridore, an analyst at Standard & Poor's. "They had the horrible luck of adopting that strategy at the worse possible time. It just wasn't in the cards for them."
FLYi said it would request court approval to engage in an auction to seek outside investors or purchasers for all or part of its assets.