Air Europe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Air Europe was an airline, started in 1978 and based at London Gatwick Airport.
Charter operations began with three new Boeing 737-200s in May 1979. The airline later added scheduled services.
The man behind this company was Harry Goodman, who also founded the airline's parent company, the International Leisure Group (ILG).
ILG had been formed in the 1970s, when Goodman established the tour operator, Intasun.
Intasun, the roots of which lay in a chain of high street travel agents, bought by Harry Goodman; would later become the main customer of Air Europe.
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[edit] Expansion
Air Europe, in the same spirit as its founder, was forever an innovative airline; becoming one of the first charter airlines using brand new equipment and offering a high standard of service. Unlike many of its contemporaries, Air Europe had the distinction of being one of the few charter airlines to make a profit within the first year of its operation.
This early success gave the airline the impetus it needed, very early on, to expand.
Expansion came in 1988, with the creation of a Spanish subsidiary, Air Europa, German charter carrier NFD and the purchase of Norway Airlines.
With these newly associated airlines, ILG began to create what it had titled, Airlines of Europe.
Air Europe became the first British charter airline to operate its own trans-Atlantic flights, when it became one of the launch customers for the Boeing 757; which it introduced on services between the United Kingdom and Orlando in 1989.
[edit] Scheduled services
Following airline deregulation, at least in Europe, the airline was the first to take advantage of the now relaxed policy, toward scheduled carriers, by being the first airline to bring down business class fares within Europe.
However, the airline's sojourn into the scheduled market came at a cost, with Fokker 100 and Shorts 330 aircraft being added to the fleet, which already included a number of Boeing 737-300/-400 and 757 aircraft.
The world of scheduled travel, particularly in the airline's European market place, proved much more competitive than the charter services it had operated, successfully, since the end of the 1970s; with competition coming in the shape of British Airways and British Midland.
[edit] The end
With the outbreak of the first Gulf War in 1991 and increased competition on the airline's scheduled routes, ILG suffered heavy losses and mounting debts. To airline insiders it was also clear that the entire International Leisure Group (ILG) was grossly undercapitalised from as early as 1989 onwards and that this was a major contributory factor to the group's collapse in the aftermath of the first Gulf War.
In March of that year, ILG entered administration and many of its aircraft were impounded, leaving a substantial number of passengers stranded abroad.
The Airlines of Europe alliance unravelled with NFD and Norway Airlines quickly following their parent company into liquidation.
Air Europa, which was only 25% owned by ILG (the remaining shares were held by a consortium of Spanish banks), however, managed to successfully weather the storm and is, today, one of the leading charter and scheduled operators in Europe.
[edit] The airline's legacy
Like many of its contemporaries, such as Britannia Airways and Dan Air, Air Europe became a pioneer in offering comfortable and affordable jet travel for the average holiday-maker.
Air Europe was also typical of the trend which dominated the British holiday market in the 1980s, with tour companies operating their own in-house airlines; which, although accruing considerable capital expense in the first instance, the parent tour operator would be able to offer lower prices as it was, effectively, cutting out the "middle man".
Intasun and its associated ILG-owned tour companies, Global and Lancaster, became, what many consumers saw as the "cheaper" alternative to the other main British tour operator, of the time, Thomson Holidays.
The existence of these two major brands, helped to open up the foreign holiday market and the fierce competiton, between the two, provided families with affordable and competitive packages.
Air Europe and Intasun would be used as a template for many aspiring British tour operators, such as Cardiff-based Aspro Holidays, which launched its own in-house airline, Inter European Airways in 1987 and Airtours (later rebranded as MyTravel), which merged with Aspro in 1993, to create the second largest tour operator in the United Kingdom and which many have recognised as being a direct successor to Intasun and Air Europe.
