
| CODE | CIN | FLEET | 3 x A320 |
| FOUNDATION | 1995 | ||
| HOME | Brussels - OO | ||
| EMPLOYEES | 110 |
This a Belgian Airline founded in 1995 and flying Charter flights from Brussels to the usual Mediterranean routes including mainland Spain, the Greek islands, Turkey, the Balearic islands, Egypt and the Canary islands.
It is still very small with only three planes, all A320 (in leasing). They hired a A321 from British Midlands for the summer period with a last flight on October 3th '99 (See below). They had some Boeing B737s an 727s at the beginning. They now proudly announce that they are the first Belgian airline to operate exclusively Airbus A320 aircrafts. By the way, this is only a clue that A320s, which have long been absent from charter flights are gaining notoriety in this field. Also Air Belgium now use two A320 (in addition to a 737-400). In other countries, the amount of A320 used for charter traffic has been rapidly increasing the last year : think of Spanish Iberworld, Danish Premiair and big brother Airtours, Swiss Edelweiss among others.
They operate mainly from Brussels National but also from some other Belgian regional airports like Ostend and Liege (Bierset). They are competitors of Sobelair and the charter department of Virgin Express. They benefit the support of the Lufthansa technical and maintenance services.
After difficult beginnings, the company seemed to have reached a cruising speed, but they suddenly stopped operating round mid december '99. Short afterwards, they introduced a judiciary procedure to benefit some patience from the creditors. Although the personnel was said to keep full of confidence in the company, it seems that the rise of fuel prices and of the dollar (two or maybe all three aircraft are leased from the american ILFC leasing company) and finally the breakdown of an engine in Malaga (with the plane being grounded for a week) were too much for the remaining forces of this young airline. The court finally had to consider that there was not enough money offered from anyone else to take over the company and declared it bankrupt.
A pity for this recent airline which definitely
tried to offer a fresh mind and a good service on board.