Maersk Air
Encyclopedia
Maersk Air was a Danish
low-fare airline, based in Dragør
, Dragør Municipality; Maersk was part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
. It operated from 1969 to 2005, when it was bought by Iceland
ic investment group Fons Eignarhaldsfélag and subsequently merged with their other Danish acquisition the same year, Sterling European Airlines. The new company changed name to Sterling Airlines
, and one month later it was sold to the Icelandic FL Group
, which owns Icelandair
as well as 16.8% of EasyJet
.
The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group began to investigate opportunities to expand into airline operations in the mid-1960s. With the company's strong profile and experience in international merchant shipping since the beginning of the 20th century, and the Group's many other transport activities, air freight was seen as the next step in the progression of the company. However, as Danish law precluded chartered air freight in Denmark (a policy not rescinded until 1987), Maersk instead took over the Falck Air company in 1969, which operated a scheduled service between Copenhagen and Odense
. Maersk Air was born, and
three new Fokker F-27 aircraft were purchased for the service, and charter, operations.
Services to Vágar
in the Faroe Islands
started in 1971, and in the same year Maersk, together with Scandinavian Airlines System
and Cimber Air, agreed to form 'DANAIR' to act as an umbrella company to co-ordinate Danish domestic services.
Boeing 707
aircraft were purchased in 1973 to allow for expansion in the charter holiday market, and at the same time the company acquired its first helicopters to serve the North Sea
oil field
s from Esbjerg
. The Maersk corporate identity of sky blue and the seven-pointed star
logo. The Maersk name is applied to the aircraft for the first time. However, throughout this time, financial results remained disappointing, and major restructuring was necessary in the early 1980s to ensure the airline's survival.
Boeing 737
s were introduced in 1976, and the company became a test case for the Boeing
, which evaluated the performance of the airline's 737 on the short runway at Vágar Airport
in the Faroes. Maersk would also be a test company for Boeing with the 737-300 in 1985, and the 737-700 in 1995.
The first international routes were established in the early 1980s, first to Stavanger
in Norway
and to Southend-on-Sea
in the United Kingdom
. Maersk also took full ownership of Copenhagen Airport Services (now Novia) in 1989, previously having been a shareholder. A cargo centre was established in Copenhagen, initially with German carrier Lufthansa
, however Maersk now operate the facility on their own.
The 1990s saw considerable expansion in the number of European destinations served, and the fleet grew to accommodate. Maersk also purchased 49% of Estonian Air
, but this was later divested in 2003.
A United Kingdom
subsidiary "Maersk Air Ltd" was formed during 1993, following the de-merger of Brymon European Airways based at Birmingham Airport and Plymouth Airport, and was initially equipped with a fleet of BAC 1-11s and Jetstream 31's. These were eventually replaced by a new fleet of five Boeing 737-500 and six Bombardier CRJ-200s. A BAe Jetstream 41 was also added to the fleet at one point to operate the service to Newcastle. Maersk Air Ltd operated as a British Airways franchise in full BA livery. A number of routes were operated to European destinations including Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
. This unit was subsequently sold to its management but ceased operations in 2004.
A new livery
was introduced in 2004, consisting of a white
forward fuselage
, deep blue rear fuselage (diagonally separated) with the sky blue at the bottom rear of the fuselage (again, separated diagonally). Maersk is written in bold white titles down the tailfin
, the star logo moving next to the deep blue Maersk titled on the forward upper fuselage. This replaced the all-over sky blue with deep blue stripe that had been used since the 1970s.
Services to the Faroe Islands, operated almost since conception, ended in 2004, replaced by a code sharing agreement with Faroese carrier Atlantic Airways
. Code sharing is also in place with Cimber Air, which took over most of Maersk's domestic services and those to Norway and Sweden
.
On 30 June 2005, A.P. Moeller-Maersk agreed to sell Maersk Air to Fons Eignarhaldsfélag, and in September 2005 the new owners moved Maersk's assets into their other acquisition the same year, Sterling European Airlines, and changed the company's name to Sterling Airlines
. One month later they sold the new entity to Icelandair's owners, the FL Group.
This company still flying in new name A/S Maersk Aviation Holding, Copenhagen.
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
low-fare airline, based in Dragør
Dragør
Dragør Kommune is a municipality in Copenhagen County on the southern coast of the island of Amager just east of Zealand in eastern Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 18 km², and has a total population of 13,411...
, Dragør Municipality; Maersk was part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
A.P. Moller-Maersk Group
A.P. Moller – Maersk Group , also known as Maersk , is a Danish business conglomerate. A.P. Moller – Maersk Group has activities in a variety of business sectors, primarily within the transportation and energy sectors. It is the largest container ship operator and supply vessel operator in the...
. It operated from 1969 to 2005, when it was bought by Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic investment group Fons Eignarhaldsfélag and subsequently merged with their other Danish acquisition the same year, Sterling European Airlines. The new company changed name to Sterling Airlines
Sterling Airlines
Sterling Airlines A/S was a low-cost airline with its head office at Copenhagen Airport South in Dragør, Dragør Municipality, Denmark. It was created in September 2005 through the merger of two Danish airlines — Sterling European Airlines and Maersk Air — which had been bought by the Icelandic...
, and one month later it was sold to the Icelandic FL Group
FL GROUP
Stodir is an international investment company, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland with offices in London.The company was founded on July 20, 1973, under the name Flugleiðir. It was formed as a holding company for Loftleiðir and Flugfélag Íslands....
, which owns Icelandair
Icelandair
Icelandair ehf is the flag carrier airline of Iceland, based on the grounds of Reykjavík Airport in Reykjavík. It is part of the Icelandair Group and currently operates scheduled services to 31 cities in 13 countries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean out of its hub at Keflavík International Airport...
as well as 16.8% of EasyJet
EasyJet
EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports...
.
History
Odense
The city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.Odense City has a population of 167,615 and is the main city of the island of Funen...
. Maersk Air was born, and
three new Fokker F-27 aircraft were purchased for the service, and charter, operations.
Services to Vágar
Vágar
Vágar is one of the 18 islands in the archipelago of the Faroe Islands and the most westerly of the large islands. With a size of 178 km² , it ranks number three, behind Streymoy and Eysturoy....
in the Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
started in 1971, and in the same year Maersk, together with Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
and Cimber Air, agreed to form 'DANAIR' to act as an umbrella company to co-ordinate Danish domestic services.
Boeing 707
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is a four-engine narrow-body commercial passenger jet airliner developed by Boeing in the early 1950s. Its name is most commonly pronounced as "Seven Oh Seven". The first airline to operate the 707 was Pan American World Airways, inaugurating the type's first commercial flight on...
aircraft were purchased in 1973 to allow for expansion in the charter holiday market, and at the same time the company acquired its first helicopters to serve the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
oil field
Oil field
An oil field is a region with an abundance of oil wells extracting petroleum from below ground. Because the oil reservoirs typically extend over a large area, possibly several hundred kilometres across, full exploitation entails multiple wells scattered across the area...
s from Esbjerg
Esbjerg
Esbjerg Municipality is a municipality in Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Johnny Søtrup, from the Venstre political party...
. The Maersk corporate identity of sky blue and the seven-pointed star
Heptagram
A heptagram or septegram is a seven-pointed star drawn with seven straight strokes.- Geometry :In general, a heptagram is any self-intersecting heptagon ....
logo. The Maersk name is applied to the aircraft for the first time. However, throughout this time, financial results remained disappointing, and major restructuring was necessary in the early 1980s to ensure the airline's survival.
Boeing 737
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
s were introduced in 1976, and the company became a test case for the Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, which evaluated the performance of the airline's 737 on the short runway at Vágar Airport
Vágar Airport
Vágar Airport is the only airport in the Faroe Islands, a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and is located east of Sørvágur. Due to the Faroe Islands' rather anomalous status, the airport is not fully subject to the rules of the European Union...
in the Faroes. Maersk would also be a test company for Boeing with the 737-300 in 1985, and the 737-700 in 1995.
The first international routes were established in the early 1980s, first to Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and to Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Maersk also took full ownership of Copenhagen Airport Services (now Novia) in 1989, previously having been a shareholder. A cargo centre was established in Copenhagen, initially with German carrier Lufthansa
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...
, however Maersk now operate the facility on their own.
The 1990s saw considerable expansion in the number of European destinations served, and the fleet grew to accommodate. Maersk also purchased 49% of Estonian Air
Estonian Air
AS Estonian Air is Estonia's national carrier, owned by the Estonian state. The airline is based in Tallinn, Estonia. It is a regional airline feeding into the Scandinavian Airlines System network via Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen from Estonia....
, but this was later divested in 2003.
A United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
subsidiary "Maersk Air Ltd" was formed during 1993, following the de-merger of Brymon European Airways based at Birmingham Airport and Plymouth Airport, and was initially equipped with a fleet of BAC 1-11s and Jetstream 31's. These were eventually replaced by a new fleet of five Boeing 737-500 and six Bombardier CRJ-200s. A BAe Jetstream 41 was also added to the fleet at one point to operate the service to Newcastle. Maersk Air Ltd operated as a British Airways franchise in full BA livery. A number of routes were operated to European destinations including Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol ) is the Netherlands' main international airport, located 20 minutes southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer. The airport's official English name, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, reflects the original Dutch word order...
. This unit was subsequently sold to its management but ceased operations in 2004.
A new livery
Livery
A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...
was introduced in 2004, consisting of a white
White
White is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
forward fuselage
Fuselage
The fuselage is an aircraft's main body section that holds crew and passengers or cargo. In single-engine aircraft it will usually contain an engine, although in some amphibious aircraft the single engine is mounted on a pylon attached to the fuselage which in turn is used as a floating hull...
, deep blue rear fuselage (diagonally separated) with the sky blue at the bottom rear of the fuselage (again, separated diagonally). Maersk is written in bold white titles down the tailfin
Tailfin
The tailfin era of automobile styling encompassed the 1950s and 1960s, peaking between 1957 and 1960. It was a style that spread worldwide, as car designers picked up styling trends from the US automobile industry where it was the golden epoch of American autodesign.General Motors design chief...
, the star logo moving next to the deep blue Maersk titled on the forward upper fuselage. This replaced the all-over sky blue with deep blue stripe that had been used since the 1970s.
Services to the Faroe Islands, operated almost since conception, ended in 2004, replaced by a code sharing agreement with Faroese carrier Atlantic Airways
Atlantic Airways
Atlantic Airways is the national airline of the Faroe Islands, operating domestic helicopter services and international passenger services as well as search and rescue responsibilities from its base at Vágar Airport, on the Faroese island of Vágar...
. Code sharing is also in place with Cimber Air, which took over most of Maersk's domestic services and those to Norway and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
On 30 June 2005, A.P. Moeller-Maersk agreed to sell Maersk Air to Fons Eignarhaldsfélag, and in September 2005 the new owners moved Maersk's assets into their other acquisition the same year, Sterling European Airlines, and changed the company's name to Sterling Airlines
Sterling Airlines
Sterling Airlines A/S was a low-cost airline with its head office at Copenhagen Airport South in Dragør, Dragør Municipality, Denmark. It was created in September 2005 through the merger of two Danish airlines — Sterling European Airlines and Maersk Air — which had been bought by the Icelandic...
. One month later they sold the new entity to Icelandair's owners, the FL Group.
Fleet
The Maersk Air fleet consisted of the following aircraft when it was merged with Sterling :- 5 Boeing 737-500Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
- 13 Boeing 737-700Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
This company still flying in new name A/S Maersk Aviation Holding, Copenhagen.
External links
- Maersk Air (Archive)
- Maersk Air Fleet Detail