This episode of Grounded looks at Futura, a Spanish charter airline and ACMI specialist. Founded in 1989 and headquartered on the Balearic Island of Mallorca as a joint venture between the Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus, Banco Santander and several other parties. Futura would operate a large fleet of Boeing 737s including the 737-400 and 737-800 as well as become the first European operator of the Boeing 737-900ER beating the UK’s XL Airways to the title by mere days with both airlines collapsing within days of each other…
*** Contents of this Video ***
00:00 Intro
00:15 Futura Founded
01:49 Early Years
04:00 ACMI Leasing
04:53 European Expansion
06:09 New Livery
07:10 The 737-800 Arrives
08:11 Change in Ownership
09:20 Further Expansion
10:22 FlyAnt Cargo
10:49 Futura Gael
12:32 New Owners & Financial Difficulties
14:05 Futura Collapses
15:43 Analysis
18:17 Outro
I mention a few other airlines in this episode which have previously been covered by the series, these are listed below;
*Helios Airways
Helios Airways was founded in 1999 as the first independently owned airline in the country, Helios would operate a mix of charter and scheduled flights from across Europe to Cyprus. The airline would sadly be mostly remembered for the crash of Helios Flight 522, aka “The Ghost Flight” which crashed in 2005. Following the tragedy Helios would rebrand as Ajet but despite their best efforts could not shake the ghost of Flight 522 and would cease operations towards the end of 2006.
*Excel Airways
Following their successful re-branding from Sabre Airways, Excel Airways would grow to become one of Europe’s largest travel companies. This episode looks at how Excel grew and how the seeds of their own destruction were sewn…
*XL Airways
After a management buyout the XL Leisure Group was the UK’s 3rd largest travel company and things looked good but all was not as it seemed….
*Islandsflug
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.
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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https://www.reddit.com/r/GroundedAirlines/
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