Air Europe (Great Britain)

Air Europe
IATA code :	AE
ICAO code :	AEO
Call sign :	AIR EUROPE
Founding:	1978
Operation stopped:	1991
Seat:	Crawley , UK
Home airport :	London Gatwick Airport
Fleet size:	25th
Aims:	international
Air Europe ceased operations in 1991. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Air Europe was a British airline that ceased operations in March 1991. In addition to charter flights , the company also operated scheduled flights from May 1985 . In 1989 the company formed the Airlines of Europe Group together with its European sister companies .

A Boeing 737-200 of Air Europe on the airport of Basel in 1984

Charter flights

Due to the recession following the first oil crisis , numerous British charter airlines had filed for bankruptcy, so that at the end of the 1970s there was insufficient capacity to meet the increased demand for package tours . The British tour operator Intasun Leisure then founded the airline Inter European Airways together with private investors on July 18, 1978 , which was renamed Air Europe at the beginning of 1979 . Operations began on May 4, 1979 with a flight from London Gatwick to Palma . Initially, the company operated three Boeing 737-200 aircraft , which served 29 destinations from London in the first summer season . In addition, the company operated charter flights from Manchester Airport from autumn 1979 . In 1981 Air Europe's parent company , Intasun Leisure Group , went public. The IPO brought the capital to purchase further Boeing 737s, so that from 1982 charter flights from Cardiff could also be started. Leased Boeing 757 aircraft increased the fleet from April 6, 1983. Due to its rapid expansion, Air Europe rose to become the second largest British charter airline after Britannia Airways in the mid-1980s . In 1987 the company carried 1.64 million passengers with a fleet of 15 aircraft. Long-haul flights to Goa and Male were made starting in 1989 with Boeing 757. At the same time, the company leased for its charter flights to Orlando , Acapulco and Bangkok is a widebody aircraft of the type Boeing 747 from the American Tower Air . After delivering more Boeing 757s, the company started using its own aircraft on these routes from autumn 1989.

Scheduled flights

A Short 360 from the subsidiary Air Europe Express

In addition to the charter services, Air Europe started operating scheduled flights between London Gatwick and Palma from May 1985 . A second destination was Gibraltar from May 1986 on scheduled flights. In 1988, the route network departing from London-Gatwick included the destinations Arrecife , Brussels , Gibraltar, Palma, Paris and Munich . In addition, three routes departing from Manchester to Arrecife, Funchal and Gibraltar were flown. In the same year Air Europe acquired the London-Gatwick-based regional airline Connectair , which had operated feeder services for British Caledonian Airways with its Short 360 . The company was renamed Air Europe Express on February 1, 1989 (ICAO code: AEE). By taking over Connectair , Air Europe was able to use additional traffic rights (so-called slots ) in London-Gatwick. In order to win business travelers as customers, the Boeing 737-300s used in scheduled operations were equipped with a business class from October 1988 . From the end of March 1989 the companies Air Europe and Air Europe Express operated outgoing scheduled connections from London-Gatwick to Antwerp , Arrecife, Brussels, Düsseldorf , Geneva, Gibraltar, Copenhagen , Málaga , Malta , Munich, Oslo , Palma, Paris, Rome , Rotterdam and Stockholm . The regional airline Guernsey Airlines , which was bought up in April 1989 , was merged with the subsidiary Air Europe Express in August 1989 . The group then also offered liner services to the British Channel Islands under its own name. From December 1989 the first four Fokker 100s were used on the line routes.

Airlines of Europe Group

A Boeing 757 of Air Europe Germany at the airport Dusseldorf in 1990

In 1986 the parent company of Air Europe , now renamed International Leisure Group (ILG) , began to acquire stakes in European airlines. The plans envisaged creating a Europe-wide association of subsidiaries under the name Airlines of Europe Group by the end of 1992 , whose aircraft should operate in uniform colors and under identical brand names. A common network of scheduled flights should be operated from the national locations of the individual companies and charter flights should also be carried out. It was also planned to move the aircraft between the individual subsidiaries if necessary, so that capacities could be adjusted at any time.

The International Leisure Group acquired the maximum stake in the following airlines as permitted by the respective national law:

• a 25% stake in the Spanish Air España , which was then renamed Air Europa in 1986 .
• a 49% stake in the German regional airline Nürnberger Flugdienst (NFD) , which its owner Hans Rudolf Wöhrl transferred to ILG in 1989 . The company started using a Boeing 757 under the name Air Europe Germany on charter flights from autumn 1989 . Another Boeing 757 was taken over by the parent company in the spring of 1990.
• a 35% stake in the Italian regional airline Flying Services , from which Air Europe Italy emerged in June 1989 .
• a 33% stake in the Norwegian Norway Airlines , which in June 1989 was named Air Europe Scandinavia .

In addition, the International Leisure Group planned to acquire stakes in the French Corse Air and a Dutch airline. But the negotiations failed.

In 1989 the airlines of the Airlines of Europe Group carried 5.8 million passengers, 2.7 million of them on tourist charter flights. At this point in time, the group was using a total of 31 jet aircraft and 23 turboprop aircraft. In the same year, ILG placed orders for 20 medium- haul aircraft of the Boeing 757 type , 11 short-haul aircraft of the Fokker 100 type (plus 11 options) and 6 long-haul aircraft of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 (plus 12 options) in order to establish a uniform fleet . The group of companies planned to operate a total of 100 aircraft in 1994.

International Leisure Group bankruptcy

The parent company International Leisure Group had become heavily indebted through the investments in the individual European airlines . In the autumn of 1990, the effects of the Second Gulf War led to a sharp decline in the tourism business, which particularly affected the two British subsidiaries Air Europe and Intrasun Leisure . In addition, the prices for kerosene and thus Air Europe's operating costs rose . After several investors withdrew their capital from the company, the International Leisure Group and its UK subsidiaries went bankrupt on March 8, 1991. Air Europe and Air Europe Express ceased operations on the same day. The search for new investors was unsuccessful.

New investors could be found for the other airlines of the Airlines of Europe Group , so that the Italian Air Europe , the Spanish Air Europa , the Norwegian Norway Airlines and the German Nürnberger Flugdienst remained independent companies.

fleet

A Tower Air Boeing 747 that had been leased for long-haul flights in 1989

Fleet at the end of operations

At the time of bankruptcy, the fleet consisted of three Boeing 737-300s, eight Boeing 737-400s, seven Boeing 757-200s and seven Fokker 100s.

Previously deployed aircraft

In the course of its history, Air Europe has also used the following types of aircraft:

• Boeing 737-200 (operated from 1979 to 1988)
• Boeing 747-100 (leased from Tower Air in 1989 )

See also

• Former Airlines List (Europe)

literature

• Graham M. Simons: It was nice to fly with friends! The story of Air Europe. Peterborough, 1999, GMS Enterprises, ISBN 1-870384-69-5
• Klaus Vomhof: Leisure Airlines of Europe . SCOVAL, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001, ISBN 1-902236-09-2

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Aero, edition 190/1987, p. 5299
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001
3. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 88/89
4. ↑ Flight International, March 29, 1986, p. 44 [1]
5. ^ Air Europe flight plan 1986 [2]
6. ↑ Air Europe flight plan 1988 [3]
7. ↑ Flight International, December 3, 1988, p. 19 ( PDF , 228 kB).
8. ↑ Air Europe flight plan 1989 [4]
9. ↑ Flight International, March 27, 1991, p. 92 [5]
10. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 90/91
11. ↑ Flight International, April 17, 1990, p. 54 [6]
12. ↑ Flight International, December 3, 1988, ( PDF ; 424 kB)
13. ^ Air Europe Annual Report 1989
14. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 89/90
15. ↑ Flight International, February 11, 1989, p. 2 [7]
16. ↑ Flight International, April 1, 1989, p. 11 [8]
17. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 91/91
18. ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 91/92
19. ↑ Rzjets, Air Europe fleet overview with type lists, accessed on April 10, 2017
20. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, various issues