Alas Nacionales
| Alas Nacionales | |
|---|---|
| IATA code : | (without) |
| ICAO code : | ALW |
| Call sign : | ALASNACIONAL |
| Founding: | 1995 |
| Operation stopped: | 1996 |
| Seat: |
Puerto Plata , Dominican Republic
|
| Home airport : | Puerto Plata Airport |
| Fleet size: | 1 |
| Aims: | international |
| Alas Nacionales ceased operations in 1996. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Alas Nacionales was a Dominican airline and a cooperation company of the Turkish Birgenair . The company, based at Puerto Plata Airport , operated charter flights between the Dominican Republic and Germany. For this purpose, it used aircraft rented from Birgenair .
history
The tour operator Öger Tours and the Ratioflug aviation company entered into a cooperation in the summer of 1994 to offer low-cost IT charter flights from Germany to the Dominican Republic in the winter season 1994/95 . The Federal Ministry of Transport granted Rationflug route rights limited to six months. Because Ratioflug itself did not have any aircraft with the appropriate capacity and range, aircraft from Turkish Birgenair were rented and operated in wet lease on the transatlantic route.
In order to be able to continue the charter flights afterwards, Öger Tours and Birgenair entered into a collaboration with the Puerto Plata- based Dominican airline Alas Nacionales in 1995 . This company, which was founded in the same year by the Finn Matti Puhakka and six other partners, had an Air Operator Certificate , but no aircraft. It was agreed that the flights would be organized and operated by Birgenair . In return, Matti Puhakka and his business partners were offered a remuneration of 10 DM per passenger flown in. After Alas Nacionales had received the requested route rights between the Dominican Republic and Germany, one was Boeing 767-200ER of Birgenair transferred to the Dominican Republic, where on 25 October 1995 with the Mark HI-660CA on Alas Nacionales registered. Alas Nacionales had officially leased this aircraft from Birgenair . The charter flights between the Dominican Republic and Germany started a week later and operated with Turkish crews.
Due to a defective hydraulic pump, the Boeing 767 was not available on February 6, 1996 for the ALW301 flight to Frankfurt , so that the charter flight was carried out with a Birgenair Boeing 757-200 . Birgenair rented this Boeing 757 to the Argentine Staf Airlines (ICAO code: STU) in November 1995 and used it in a wet lease on five flight pairs between the Dominican Republic and Buenos Aires until January 1996 . After the rental ended, the aircraft was not returned to Turkey, but remained in Puerto Plata. Shortly after taking off from Puerto Plata, the machine crashed into the sea.
As a result of the crash, Alas Nacionales and Birgenair ceased operations in March 1996. Both companies filed for bankruptcy shortly afterwards.
fleet
- Boeing 757-200 , an aircraft leased once from Birgenair
- Boeing 767-200ER , an aircraft leased on a long-term basis from Birgenair
Incidents
- On February 6, 1996, the Boeing 757-200 (TC-GEN), which had been hired as a replacement at short notice, crashed on the flight to Frankfurt shortly after taking off from Puerto Plata Airport, around 26 kilometers from the coast into the Atlantic. All 176 passengers and 13 crew members were killed, including 167 Germans and 9 Poles.