Atlantis (airline)
| Atlantis | |
|---|---|
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| IATA code : | (without) |
| ICAO code : | NO |
| Call sign : | ATLANTIS |
| Founding: | 1968 |
| Operation stopped: | 1972 |
| Seat: |
Echterdingen , Germany
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| Home airport : | airport Frankfurt |
| Fleet size: | 8th |
| Aims: | Mediterranean, USA, Acapulco, Nairobi |
| Atlantis ceased operations in 1972. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
The aviation company Atlantis AG was founded in the spring of 1968 by former employees of Südflug International . Atlantis was the first German charter airline to start daily flights to the USA . The company's home airport was Frankfurt am Main .
history
After the airline Südflug was taken over by Lufthansa in January 1968 , Südflug sales manager Tillman Uhlig and flight captain Werner Will acquired Nordseeflug GmbH , which was founded in 1966 and operated a Douglas DC-3 on flights from Hamburg to Sylt . The DC-3 was sold after the takeover and the company's name was changed to Atlantis . The company applied for route rights for flights to the USA and from March 1968 leased a Douglas DC-7 from Scandinavian Airlines System , with which it initially offered ad hoc charter traffic for guest workers to Greece, Spain and Turkey in the spring of 1968 . During the holiday season, Atlantis also operated IT charter flights from various West German airports to destinations on the Mediterranean . On November 1, 1968, the company received its first jet aircraft , a Douglas DC-8-33 from the holdings of the dissolved Südflug , which Lufthansa had initially sold to an American aircraft dealer and then to Atlantis . A second Douglas DC-8 was acquired in the same manner on March 31, 1969.
On September 30, 1968, Atlantis received from the US side the permission for transatlantic charter flights ( Affinity Group Charter ), the start of which was planned for December 2, 1968. Because in the spring of 1969 there was still no approval from the Federal German Ministry of Transport, this was taken in court. In addition, additional financiers were raised in 1969 in order to be able to finance further aircraft. For this purpose, Flugkapital GmbH was founded with an investment volume of over DM 40 million and the corporate form changed to a stock corporation . Air traffic to the USA began on May 24, 1969. Initially the routes from Frankfurt / Main to New York and Los Angeles were served . In January, February and April 1970, the company received a total of three Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft that were used on charter flights to the Mediterranean. Two of the three DC-9s were operated exclusively for the Stuttgart tour operator Hetzel-Reisen and were the only Atlantis aircraft to carry a baptismal name ( Schwabenland and Goldenes Horn ). With three brand new Douglas DC-8-63CF long -haul aircraft , which were delivered in 1970 and 1971, air traffic over the North Atlantic could be significantly intensified and Chicago could be reached as a further destination. In addition, Atlantis ordered two McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 wide-body aircraft , the delivery of which was scheduled for 1973.
On March 19, 1970, Atlantis applied for scheduled flight rights for the United States. However, the Federal Ministry of Transport rejected this application in July 1970. Direct competition with the state-owned Lufthansa was thus avoided. Nevertheless, the situation between the two companies remained tense because Lufthansa saw in the Atlantis a potential competitor in the scheduled flight sector, which was already competing with the Lufthansa subsidiary Condor on charter routes . The Lufthansa denied the Atlantis of technical assistance and the delivery of in-flight catering. At the same time, the company lowered the airfares on the routes that were served in parallel by Atlantis . The increasing price war between the two companies contributed to the economic decline of Atlantis . Although more than 500,000 passengers were carried in 1971, the company ran into financial difficulties. Insufficient funding, errors in route planning and inadequate pricing led to increasing losses. In addition, the company failed to lease its aircraft to third parties during the low-demand winter months. Only in the summer of 1971 did Atlantis use a DC-8 for the French Aéromaritime . The economic difficulties increased further after the 1972 summer season and led to the cessation of flight operations on October 19, 1972. On October 20, 1972, Atlantis AG filed for bankruptcy . The aircraft began to be sold the following month. In September 1981 the company was deleted from the commercial register.
fleet
See also
literature
- Jochen K. Beeck: Passenger aircraft of the airlines of Europe . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02239-7 .
- Klaus Vomhof: Leisure Airlines of Europe . SCOVAL, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001, ISBN 1-902236-09-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Atlantis: Good money thrown after bad . In: Die Zeit , No. 37/1972
- ↑ Rzjets, Douglas DC-7C, D-ABYF , accessed January 21, 2019
- ↑ a b c Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, 2001
- ↑ From Sylt to New York . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1968 ( online ).
- ^ Die Zeit, starting ban for the competition, March 21, 1969 [1]
- ↑ jp aircraft markings 72
- ↑ Photo of the Atlantis DC-8 (D-ADIR) leased to Aeromaritime
- ^ Flight International, annual index 1971
- ^ Hamburger Abendblatt, October 19, 1972
- ^ Hamburger Abendblatt, November 13, 1972
