This episode of Grounded takes a look at XTRA Airways, following on from our previous episode which looked at Casino Express we now look at what happened following the airlines rebrand to Xtra in 2005. Xtra carved itself out a nice little niche as a specialist charter operator with clientele ranging from college sports teams to rock bands and even Presidential candidates. Xtra was also an ACMI specialist, operating for the likes of Bahamas Air, ONE Airlines and a very short lived Western Airlines revival as well as a long term contract with Direct Air. After a couple of setbacks the airline seemed to be on the up & up, however their owners opted for a change in direction which would lead to the airline rebranding as Avelo Airlines in 2020.
*** Contents of this Video ***
00:00 Intro
00:22 Casino Express
00:52 Rebranding to Xtra Airways
03:38 Western Airlines
04:15 Direct Air
05:15 XL Leisure Group Ownership
05:45 Livery Refresh
06:07 Direct Air Debacle
07:50 PEOPLExpress
08:29 Air Florida Redux
09:18 ACMI Operations
10:01 Bankruptcy & New Owners
10:56 XTRAirways Rebrand
12:40 Campaign Charters
13:18 Xtra on the up & up!
14:01 Piecemeal Sale
15:21 New Owners
16:10 Avelo Airlines
17:19 Outro
Airlines mentioned in this episode include;
Casino Express
Founded specially to operate gaming charters taking gamblers to casinos, Casino Express would go on to operate ad-hoc executive charters as well as provide aircraft operations for Tahoe Air before moving fully into executive charters and rebranding as Xtra Airways.
Excel Airways / XL Airways
Following their successful re-branding from Sabre Airways, Excel Airways would grow to become one of Europe’s largest travel companies. Following a management buy-out separating it from Air Atlanta Icelandic (Avion Group) a newly rebranded XL would become one of the first casualties of the 2008 global recession. The Excel story is split into two episodes, the rise of Excel and the fall of XL.
Rise of Excel – https://youtu.be/gzmO9gdmcu0
Fall of XL – https://youtu.be/lfeQkVa0eH4
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.
Air Florida
Originally billed as “The” deregulation success story Air Florida grew from a tiny intrastate carrier to an international & long-haul airline. Sadly remembered for their bright colour scheme being plainly visible in the wreckage of a tragic accident…
Futura International Airways
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…
I am trying to get these episodes out at a faster rate, hopefully my flying schedule is quietening down for winter so it should give me more time to work on research, writing and producing episodes. 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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