Minerva Airlines
| Minerva Airlines, S. p. A. | |
|---|---|
_AN0155602.jpg)
|
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| IATA code : |
|
| ICAO code : | MTC |
| Call sign : | AIR MINERVA |
| Founding: | 1995 |
| Operation stopped: | 2003 |
| Seat: |
Catanzaro , Calabria , Italy
|
| Home airport : | Trieste airport |
| Company form: | S. p. A. |
| Management: | Mario Rosconi |
| Number of employees: | 120 (2001) |
| Fleet size: | 8 (2001) |
| Aims: | national |
| Website: | www.minerva-airlines.it |
| Minerva Airlines, S. p. A. ceased operations in 2003. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Minerva Airlines was an Italian airline company with headquarters in Catanzaro .
history
Minerva Airlines was founded in December 1995 in Calabria by the Mancuso Group. The company was aiming to start operations with Dornier 328-110 machines and so two orders were placed, which were delivered in August of the following year. Taking up flight operations on September 1, 1996 with non-stop flights and vacation business from Milan , Minerva Airlines also introduced its own scheduled connections a little later. The company, which operates to Naples , Trieste , Bari and Palermo , counted around 23,500 passengers in the four months of its operation towards the end of 1996.
In 1997, Minerva Airlines received two more Dornier 328-110s. At the same time, the airline laid the foundation for the subsequent collaboration with Alitalia by running the first replacement flights for the latter. The partnership was expanded a year later; from 1998 Minerva Airlines operated for Alitalia and Alitalia Express as a full franchise on 19 connections within Italy. At this point in time, the company could look back on a fleet of seven Dornier 328-110s with around 320,000 passengers. After a plane belonging to Minerva Airlines had an accident on landing in Genoa on February 25, 1999 and four people were killed in this incident, the number of passengers dropped to 213,000.
Minerva Airlines ceased operations in October 2003 after being declared bankrupt by a court. Investigations into bankruptcy crimes have been initiated against parts of the company's management . A planned resumption of flight operations could never be realized.
Destinations
Minerva Airlines operated mainly domestic regional and feeder flights in franchise for Alitalia and Alitalia Express. The colors of the machines, their cabin furnishings, the on-board catering and the uniforms of the flight attendants have been adapted to those of Alitalia.
fleet
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In 2001 the Minerva Airlines fleet consisted of the following eight machines:
| Aircraft type | number | Aircraft registration | Seats (Economy) |
Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dornier 328-110 | 8th | D-CPRP | 32 | leased from Deutsche Structured Finance Aircraft Leasing ; in Alitalia Express livery |
| D-CPRS | leased from Millennium Leasing ; in Alitalia Express livery | |||
| D-CPRT | ||||
| D-CPRU | ||||
| D-CPRV | ||||
| D-CPRW | ||||
| D-CPRX | ||||
| D-CPRY |
Incidents
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- On February 25, 1999, a Minerva Airlines operated Dornier 328-110 ( aircraft registration D-CPRR ) had an accident on Alitalia flight 1553 while landing at Genoa airport . The machine coming from Caligari touched down very late and with a tailwind, lurched left over the end of runway 29 and sank after colliding with a 1.5 meter high wall in the Ligurian Sea behind the runway . The nose landing gear of the machine collapsed when it collided with the wall and damaged the interior of the landing gear shaft, allowing water to penetrate through it. Of the 31 inmates, 27 passengers and 4 crew members, only 27 survived; two passengers and a flight attendant drowned in the water-filled wreck, a third passenger later died in the hospital from his injuries. In addition, 21 people were injured. The only emergency exit used during the evacuation had been opened by Marco Sulis, a 15-year-old competitive swimmer, who was on board as part of an eight-person youth group on board on the way to the Italian Junior Swimming Championships and had familiarized himself with the safety instructions. To date, as of March 2020, the accident is the only loss of a Dornier 328 aircraft in which there are fatalities. Sulis received for his actions - like the late flight attendant Alessandra Bugliolo posthumously - the Medaglia d'oro al valor civile , the highest award of the Italian Republic for civil courage (see also Alitalia flight 1553 ) .
See also
Web links
- Photos of Minerva Airlines on Airliners.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher, Ernst Sommer, Antonio Härry, Werner Wyder: jp airline-fleets international 2001/02 . Bucher & Co., Glattbrugg 2001, ISBN 3-85758-135-2 , pp. 217 (English).
- ↑ a b c d Myron J. Smith Jr .: The Airline Encyclopedia. 1909-2000. tape 2 . Scarecrow, Lanham / Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-8108-3790-0 , pp. 1864 (American English).
- ^ Minerva Airlines - Airline Information . In: ch-aviation . ch-aviation GmbH, accessed on August 23, 2019 (English).
- ^ Minerva Airlines, tribunale dichiara reati prescritti. In: cn24tv.it. April 16, 2012, accessed August 23, 2019 (Italian).
- ^ Minerva Airlines si prepara a riprendere il volo. In: Travelnostop. September 27, 2006, accessed August 23, 2019 (Italian).
- ↑ Accident report Dornier 328-110 D-CPRR . In: Aviation Safety Network . Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ Wanda Valli: L'aereo affonda in mare. In: La Repubblica . February 26, 1999, accessed August 22, 2019 (Italian).
- ^ Marco Sulis, l'eroe venuto da Cagliari Genova, assegnata la medaglia d'oro al giovane che salvò i passeggeri. In: La Repubblica . December 16, 1999, accessed August 22, 2019 (Italian).
