Episode 50 of Grounded takes a look at an airline very close to my heart, Islandsflug, also known as Icebird Airlines. This small Icelandic airline formed through the merger of a flight school and a tiny regional airline to become one of Europe’s largest ACMI carriers, operating aircraft on behalf of numerous airlines across Europe including Excel Airways, Jet2, Aviajet, Blueline, Ryanair and Air Miles. They would eventually be absorbed into Air Atlanta Icelandic during 2005 so lets grab a party hat and sit down for the Islandsflug story 🙂
Naturally because of the nature of Islandsflug’s operation, I mention quite a few airlines during this episode, some of which I have covered in previous episodes. Details of those are available below;
Airways International Cymru
Airways-Cymru were a small Welsh charter airline, they operated a fleet of BAC-1-11s and 737s until a sub-lease to an American carrier went sour and resulted in the bankruptcy of both companies. The Airways International Cymru episode is available here:
Sabre Airways
Sabre Airways was a charter airline operating Boeing 727 and 737s, they were the first airline in the UK to operate the 737-800 and also were behind the infamous “Peach Air”. Sabre would rebrand as Excel Airways in 2001, if you want to know the Excel Story then this is the place to start, the Sabre story is available here:
Excel Airways
Excel Airways formed following a rebranding of Sabre Airways in 2001, operating the 737-800, 757, 767 and 747 Excel became the third largest travel company in the UK. Their story was so long and complex I had to split it into two, this episode covers the rise of Excel Airways and is available here:
XL Airways
Following a management buy-out from Air Atlanta Icelandic / Avion Group, Excel was rebranded as XL Airways and was one of the UK’s leading charter airlines and recipient of many awards. Unfortunately the MBO was ill-thought out and combined with dodgy dealings from the Icelandic former-owners it was a house of cards waiting for a global recession… The fall of XL Airways is covered in episode 8 and available here:
*** PRODUCTION NOTES ***
Ok first off, I want to apologise for any mispronunciation during this one, I know I stuffed up at least once… I don’t sound particularly great in this episode, I had just recovered from illness so it took several attempts to record audio due to my voice going, hopefully it is barely noticeable.
Due to the nature of Islandsflug’s operation there were a lot of aircraft moving around, some were very short term charters or sub-leases. In the interest of keeping the run-time down and also not making everyone bored I have left a few out, the most noticeable would be the 737s leased to FlyGlobespan. It was a bit of a trade-off really as Islandsflug didn’t have a route network outside of their domestic operations and the cargo route so I’ve tried to make the best out of the info I had.
*** 50th Episode Arrives ***
Can you believe that this is the 50th episode of Grounded? I sure can’t 🙂 Just want to say a special thank you to those who’ve been following the series, it’s you folks that keep me going 🙂
I do want to do a special episode to follow on which offers a behind the scenes look at Grounded and my channel in general as well as some Q & A providing there is enough interest. If you do have a question or want to know more then head on over to my website and send one in on the contact form, or post down below – all sensible questions will be answered, the not so sensible ones maybe too 😉
I really appreciate any comments and feedback on this or other episodes as well as suggestions for future episodes. Believe me, if I say that your airline is “on the list”, it really is 🙂 Check back to see future episodes or better yet, subscribe to catch them as they land and as always, thanks for watching!
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