Conair of Scandinavia
| Conair of Scandinavia | |
|---|---|
|
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| IATA code : | KC |
| ICAO code : | OYC |
| Call sign : | CONAIR |
| Founding: | 1963 |
| Operation stopped: | 1993 |
| Seat: |
Copenhagen , Denmark
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| Home airport : | Copenhagen Kastrup Airport |
| Management: | Janni Spies-Kjær |
| Number of employees: | 350 |
| Fleet size: | 9 |
| Aims: | Europe , Canary Islands , Madeira , North Africa , Turkey , Gambia |
| Conair of Scandinavia ceased operations in 1993. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Conair of Scandinavia (officially Consolidated Aircraft Corporation A / S , from 1987 onwards shortened to Conair ) was a Danish charter airline based at Copenhagen-Kastrup Airport . The company ceased flight operations at the end of 1993.
history
The Consolidated Aircraft Corporation ( Conair for short ) was founded in Copenhagen in 1963 as a leasing company. The company rented a Douglas DC-7 to Flying Enterprise from April 1964 and also took a stake in this airline, which mainly worked for the tour operator Spies Rejser . In February 1965, Conair acquired two more Douglas DC-7s to rent to Flying Enterprise . The economically troubled charter airline did not take these machines and filed for bankruptcy in March 1965 . The holiday provider Spies Rejser , who had already concluded transport contracts with the Flying Enterprise , therefore lacked firmly planned transport capacities. Simon Spies, the owner of the tour operator, then acquired the leasing company Consolidated Aircraft Corporation and its three aircraft for a price of six million Danish kroner and converted it into the airline Conair of Scandinavia .
The Danish authorities issued Conair of Scandinavia a provisional Air Operator Certificate on April 2, 1965 , so that the holiday flights for Spies Rejser could continue. An unlimited operating license was issued on April 23, 1965. Initially, Conair mainly operated tourist charter flights ( IT charter ) from Copenhagen, Billund and Stockholm to the Mediterranean region (especially to Palma de Mallorca ) and the Canary Islands . In addition, occasional services ( ad hoc charter ) were flown within Europe. The company put another Douglas DC-7 into service in 1965 and 1967.
In the spring of 1966, Conair formed an interest group together with other private charter providers in order to better represent their concerns before the Scandinavian aviation authorities and to increase their competitiveness compared to Scanair , which was able to use aircraft from its state parent company Scandinavian Airlines System ( SAS ) at low cost .
In early 1971, Conair acquired five Boeing 720 jet aircraft from Eastern Air Lines , which were first used on May 15, 1971 between Copenhagen and Palma de Mallorca. At the same time, the company gradually phased out its fan guns. The last flight of a Douglas DC-7 took place on September 29, 1971 from Genoa to Copenhagen. In the same year, the company built a new hangar at Copenhagen Airport to maintain the jet aircraft . In the summer of 1973, Conair received an initial two-year approval for group charter flights ( Affinity Group charter ) to the USA . The company replaced its five machines in 1981 with an equal number of more powerful Boeing 720Bs, which it took over from Monarch Airlines and Maersk Air .
The company's founder Simon Spies died on April 16, 1984. His wife, Janni Spies, who was only 21 years old, then managed the group with the help of her brother. In March 1986, leased Conair three widebody aircraft of the type Airbus A300 of Scandinavian Airlines , which should replace the expensive and noisy Boeing 720 from autumn 1987th After a Boeing 720 had to be written off after a landing accident, one of the leased Airbus A300s came into operation on February 26, 1987. The last Boeing 720 left the fleet in November 1987. The Spies group of companies took over the Danish tour operator Tjæreborg in 1988 , which meant that Conair needed more aircraft in the long term. As a result, the company ordered six brand new Airbus A320s , which were delivered from September 1991.
At the beginning of the 1990s, the tourism market in Scandinavia only allowed limited growth, so that competition among providers intensified. In order to avoid competition, the Spies Holding A / S (as the owner of Conair ) and the SAS Leisure Group (as the owner of Scanair ) agreed on September 15, 1993 a cooperation that led to the establishment of the joint charter airline Premiair . The new company, in which both groups had a 50% stake, began flight operations on January 1, 1994. At the same time, Conair and Scanair ceased operations at the end of 1993 and ceded their machines to the new company.
Incidents
- On September 13, 1974, a Boeing 720-025 ( aircraft registration : OY-DSR) landed too hard in Copenhagen. Due to the amount of damage, the aircraft had to be written off as a total loss.
- On April 6, 1987 Conair lost another Boeing 720-051B (OY-APY) due to a broken landing gear. The landing accident in which the plane caught fire occurred at Rome Ciampino Airport .
fleet
- Airbus A300B4 (operated from 1987 to 1993)
- Airbus A320-200 (operated from 1991 to 1993)
- Boeing 720 and 720B (operated from 1971 to 1987)
- Boeing 737-300 (leased from Maersk Air from 1990 to 1991 )
- Douglas DC-7 (operated from 1965 to 1971)
Trivia
Two Douglas DC-7s from Conair remained after their retirement at Esbjerg and Copenhagen airports and served the airport fire departments there as simulation objects for rescue exercises for many years.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Flight International, April 29, 1965 (PDF)
- ↑ a b c d e Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, 2001
- ↑ JP markings 66
- ^ Flight International, October 26, 1967
- ↑ Flight International, April 7, 1966 (PDF)
- ↑ Flight International, September 30, 1971 (PDF)
- ↑ Flight International, August 9, 1973 (PDF)
- ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 82
- ↑ Flight International, March 22, 1986 (PDF)
- ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 88/89
- ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 91/92
- ↑ Aircraft accident data and report of the accident of September 13, 1974 in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- ^ Danish Civil Aircraft Register, OY-APY
- ↑ JP airline-fleets international, Edition 87/88
- ↑ JP aircraft-markings and JP airline-fleets international, various years
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