Flag carrier

Flag carrier and national airline (German national airline ) is not uniformly defined term used in civil commercial aviation and refers to an airline under different possible conditions for third recognizable affinity has become a state.

With exceptions, the term flag carrier is used to designate air transport companies that are wholly or largely state-owned (or previously were). Accordingly, the state-owned company Etihad Airways , for example, describes itself as the national airline of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi or the state-owned Royal Jordanian as the national airline of Jordan .

Airline owned by a state

Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in front of a Super Constellation of the then still state-owned Lufthansa at Cologne / Bonn Airport

In the traditional sense, those airlines are called flag carriers, the majority of which are owned by a state. A monopoly position in the domestic market is also typical here . In some cases, such flag carriers also perform state tasks such as the transport of state officials on the occasion of state visits. Historically, the term was used in particular for state airlines in Europe such as Air France , British Airways or Deutsche Lufthansa . As a result of increasing privatization as well as liberalization in air traffic and open skies agreements , the term is increasingly changing in meaning, at least in Europe (see below).

Airline licensed by a state

Embraer 175 of Shuttle America with American flag next to the air vehicle registration

In the United States , among others , flag carriers are used to designate all airlines that hold a license from the aviation authority of the relevant state. Other states also partially recognize purely private airlines as flag carriers. In 2010 , the Fly6ix was approved as the country's flag carrier in Sierra Leone , followed by the also private virtual airline Fly Salone .

marketing

Boeing 747 from Virgin Atlantic marked "Britain's flag carrier"

Because of its historical prestige, the legally unprotected term flag carrier is also used by airlines that do not represent flag carriers in the conventional sense, but suggest an exclusive state reference within the scope of their marketing strategy. The airline Virgin Atlantic, for example, called itself “Britain's Flag Carrier” in response to the removal of the Union Jack from the tail units of British Airways aircraft .