Südflug International
| Südflug International | |
|---|---|
|
|
| IATA code : | (without) |
| ICAO code : | SZ |
| Call sign : | SOUTH FLIGHT |
| Founding: | 1952 |
| Operation stopped: | 1968 |
| Merged with: | Condor flight service |
| Seat: |
Stuttgart , Germany
|
| Home airport : | Stuttgart Airport |
| Fleet size: | 8th |
| Aims: | Mediterranean area, Canary Islands, USA |
| Südflug International merged with Condor Flugdienst in 1968 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover. | |
Südflug International ( Südflug in the external appearance ) was a German charter airline based at Stuttgart Airport and also the first German airline to be founded after the Second World War.
history
The airline was founded on November 24, 1952 by the former German fighter pilot and self-made entrepreneur Rul Bückle with an initial capital of 20,000 DM under the name Süddeutschebedarfsflug . For this, Bückle needed the support of Swiss straw men, as the occupation statutes that existed at the time did not allow him to establish it. Operations at Stuttgart Airport began in 1953. Initially, a Cessna UC-78 registered in Switzerland was operated with Swiss crews on an ad hoc charter basis for freight transport and business flights . A second machine of this type came into use from August 1954. After the establishment of German air transport companies became legally possible in 1955, the aircraft received a West German license plate . Around the same time, the company name was changed to Südflug - Süddeutsche Fluggesellschaft . The company then carried out survey flights in Africa, among other things. In 1955 Südflug received its first De Havilland DH.114 Heron , which was used, among other things, in scheduled operations for Lufthansa from Stuttgart to Frankfurt am Main and Nuremberg . At the beginning of 1956 and 1957, the company each acquired another Heron. The scheduled operations for Lufthansa ended in autumn 1963.
In 1963 Bückle acquired a Douglas DC-7 from the Dutch KLM and used it to take on IT charter flights to the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands . By 1966 the company put five more machines of this type into service one after the other. At the same time, Bückle concluded extensive charter contracts with various tour operators in order to utilize the additional capacities. Bückle played a key role in the development of tourism in the Canary Islands , especially in Fuerteventuras . In the period that followed, the company developed into the second largest German charter airline after Condor Flugdienst . In April 1967 Südflug International was the first German charter airline to receive traffic rights to the USA, initially limited to one year. The purchase of two brand new Douglas DC-9s and the purchase of two used Douglas DC-8s from Swissair led the company into financial problems. Due to delays in delivery of their new aircraft, Swissair was not able to sell the two Douglas DC-8s to the German company as planned in spring, but only in autumn 1967. As a result, Südflug had to rent two aircraft for the duration of the 1967 summer season in order to be able to fulfill their already concluded charter contracts. The leasing costs contributed significantly to the economic decline of the company. The competitor Lufthansa then took over the company in a " hostile action " (O-Ton Bückle) on January 2, 1968 at a price of only eight million DM. Two employees of Südflug , who left the company after the takeover, founded the same year the airline Atlantis . Lufthansa continued to run Südflug International as an independent subsidiary until the end of 1968 and integrated the company completely into its charter subsidiary Condor Flugdienst on January 2, 1969 . The aircraft of the Südflug were sold afterwards.
Condor Flugdienst had its subsidiary Südflug resurrected in 1990 as part of an austerity program. To reduce personnel costs , new pilots and flight attendants were not hired by Condor itself, but rather by Südflug at lower salaries. The subsidiary used Boeing 737-300 , Boeing 757-200 and Boeing 767-300 , which flew in Condor colors but were operated by Südflug personnel. On October 1, 1992, the outsourced subsidiary was completely merged with Condor Flugdienst .
fleet
- Aero Commander 680
- Beechcraft 65 Queen Air
- Boeing 707-138B (leased from Standard Airways )
- Cessna 172
- Cessna 175
- Cessna UC-78
- De Havilland DH.114 Heron
- Douglas DC-7C and DC-7C / F
- Douglas DC-8-33 and DC-8-54 (DC-8-54 leased from Airlift )
- Douglas DC-9-32
- Fairchild F-27
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stuttgart Airport, Economic Miracle at the Airport: Bückles Südflug (PDF) ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Flight International, April 2, 1964 (PDF)
- ↑ Rolf Diekhof: Condor receives landing rights: More charter to USA . In: Die Zeit , No. 1/1968
