Hellas Jet

Last updated

Hellas Jet
HellasJetLogo.jpg
IATA ICAO Callsign
HJHEJ [1] HELLAS JET
Founded2002
Ceased operations2010
Operating bases Athens International Airport
Secondary hubs Heraklion Airport
Fleet size6
Destinations2
Parent company Air Miles Group
Headquarters Athens, Greece
Key peoplePetros Stathis (CEO)
Website www.hellas-jet.com

Hellas Jet was a charter airline based in Athens, Greece, operating services to Greece from destinations in Europe. Its main base was Athens International Airport. [2] Hellas Jet was a licensed scheduled and charter carrier, holding a JAA AOC and a Line Maintenance Certificate under JAA/EASA Part 145, both approved by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. It ceased operations in 2010 due to economic difficulties. The repossession of two of their Airbus A320 aircraft, 87 and 88, was documented on Discovery channel TV programme Airplane Repo.[ citation needed ] The company slogan was More than a flight.

Contents

History

The airline was started in 2002 as a Cyprus Airways subsidiary and the first flight was on 24 June 2003 from Athens. At the end of the first year of operation, they had completed 3,855 flights and carried over 250,000 passengers.[ citation needed ] Due to heavy losses, Hellas Jet suspended all scheduled flights from 10 May 2005. In January 2006, the airline announced it would refocus on charter operations. In August 2006, Cyprus Airways sold its shares to Air Miles, the trading name of Trans World Aviation. The aim is to resume services later in 2007 using wet leased Airbus A320 aircraft. It was wholly owned by Air Miles and had 50 employees (at March 2009). [2]

Airbus A320-200 (new livery) HellasJetA320.jpg
Airbus A320-200 (new livery)
Airbus A320-200 (old livery) Hellasjet a320-200 sx-bvd arp.jpg
Airbus A320-200 (old livery)

Hellas Jet was an IATA member.

Destinations

[ citation needed ]

As a scheduled airline, Hellas Jet initially operated two daily flights from Athens to Paris and Brussels, and a daily flight to London/Heathrow and Zurich. Later the Zurich flights were suspended due to low passenger numbers and were replaced by daily flights to London/Gatwick, while there was a slight reduction in the Paris and Brussels frequencies to enable two weekly flights from Athens to Manchester to operate. The weekend flights to Gatwick were transferred to Heathrow in 2005, although the mid-week flights were later suspended for most of the year, except for the busy Christmas and New Year period.

As a charter airline, Hellas Jet operated charter flights to/from Heraklion and Rhodes, to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, Paris etc.

One aircraft also flew from Dublin to holiday destinations in Spain on behalf of Trans Aer. Its fleet was available for both scheduled charters as well as ad-hoc charter flights.

Fleet

Hellas Jet commenced operations with a fleet of three Airbus A320-232 aircraft, registered SX-BVA, SX-BVB and SX-BVC, leased from CIT Aerospace. BVA was built in 1992, the other two were brand new. They had been acquired on three-year leases. Their initial configuration was for 148 passengers (16 business class and 132 economy class), all with leather seats.

When the company ceased scheduled services, the aircraft were re-configured in Malta to have a single class layout with 174 moquette-trimmed seats.

SX-BVB was destroyed by fire in Brussels in May 2006. The other two planes were returned to the lessor in June 2006 and subsequently, BVA went to Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium and BVC to Air Astana of Kazakhstan.

Then Hellas-Jet leased two other used A320s, this time with CFM engines. One came from LatCharter and the other from USA3000, and they retained their colour schemes with Hellas Jet titles. A further A320 was acquired from LatCharter, registered SX-BVD, with LatCharter colours but with Hellas Jet titles and the HellasJet logo on the engines.

In its final years, the Hellas Jet fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at 29 September 2009): [3]

Accidents and incidents

On 5 May 2006, a Hellas Jet Airbus A320 was destroyed in a fire in the Sabena Technics hangar at Brussels Airport in Belgium. The plane was one of the three Airbus A320s destroyed, one belonging to Armavia, one to Armenian International Airways, and one Lockheed C-130 owned by the Belgian Air Component. [4]

Related Research Articles

Air Malta plc is the flag carrier airline of Malta, with its headquarters in Luqa and its hub at Malta International Airport. It operates services to destinations in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

The Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne, better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its bankruptcy in 2001, SN Brussels Airlines was formed through a takeover of former subsidiary Delta Air Transport and took over part of Sabena's assets in February 2002, which became Brussels Airlines after a merger with Virgin Express in March 2007. The airline's corporate headquarters were located in the Sabena House on the grounds of Brussels Airport in Zaventem.

Adria Airways Defunct Slovenian airline, 1961–2019

Adria Airways d.o.o. was the flag carrier of Slovenia, operating scheduled and charter services to European destinations. The company's head office was at Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport in Zgornji Brnik, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, near Ljubljana. On 30 September 2019, the airline declared bankruptcy and ceased all operations.

Air Moldova National airline of Moldova

Air Moldova is the national airline of Moldova headquartered in Chișinău. It mainly operates scheduled and charter services to destinations within Europe from its base at Chișinău International Airport.

Aegean Airlines S.A. is the flag carrier airline of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served and by fleet size. A Star Alliance member since June 2010, it operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek destinations as well as to a number of European and Middle Eastern destinations. Its main hubs are Athens International Airport in Athens, Macedonia International Airport in Thessaloniki and Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. It also uses other Greek airports as bases, some of which are seasonal. It has its head office in Kifisia, a suburb of Athens.

Helios Airways Defunct Cypriot airline

Helios Airways (Ajet.com) was a low-cost Cypriot airline operating scheduled and charter flights between Cyprus and many European and African destinations. It had its corporate headquarters on the grounds of Larnaca International Airport in Larnaca. Its main base was Larnaca International Airport. Flights ceased on 6 November 2006 because the company's aircraft were detained and its bank accounts frozen by the Government of Cyprus.

Armenian International Airways Former Armenian airline

Armenian International Airways was a privately owned airline operating international passenger flights based from Zvartnots International Airport in Yerevan, Armenia.

Onur Air was a low-cost airline with its headquarters in the Technical Hangar B at Istanbul Atatürk Airport in Yeşilköy, Istanbul, Turkey. It operated mostly domestic scheduled services, as well as charter flights out of its base at Istanbul Airport. As of December 2021, it was forced to suspend all operations until further notice. It was declared Bankrupt.

Blue Wings Former German charter airline

Blue Wings AG was a charter airline based in Germany, focusing on serving Turkey, the Middle East and Russia from its base at Düsseldorf Airport. The headquarters were located on the airport property.

Saga Airlines

Saga Airlines was a charter airline based in Istanbul, Turkey, which served the tourism industry.

Titan Airways

Titan Airways is a British charter airline founded in 1988 and based at London Stansted Airport. The carrier specialises in short-notice ACMI and wet lease operations as well as ad-hoc passenger and cargo charter services to tour operators, corporations, governments and the sports and entertainment sectors. The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, permitting it to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats and currently operates a fleet of 14 aircraft.

TMA Cargo

Trans Mediterranean Airways SAL, styled as TMA Cargo, was a cargo airline based in Beirut, Lebanon. The airline restarted operations in 2010, following a six-year hiatus. It suspended operations once again in September 2014.

Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide temporary increase in capacity. The industry has two main leasing types: wet-leasing, which is normally used for short-term leasing, and dry-leasing which is more normal for longer-term leases. The industry also uses combinations of wet and dry. For example, when the aircraft is wet-leased to establish new services, then as the airline's flight or cabin crews become trained, they can be switched to a dry lease.

Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America, Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew training. It is a member of the Star Alliance as well as the International Air Transport Association. The airline's IATA code SN is inherited from its predecessors, Sabena and SN Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines is part of the Lufthansa Group. The company slogan is ′You’re in good company′.

Hellenic Imperial Airways

Hellenic Imperial Airways was an airline which had its head office in Ellinikon, South Athens, Greece. It operated charter and scheduled flights. The company slogan was Your direct flight around the globe!

Flying Colours Airlines

Flying Colours was a UK charter airline that operated for 4 years between 1996 and 2000.

Cretan Airlines was a short-lived airline based in Heraklion, Greece that operated from 1993 to 1995. It is not to be confused with Cretan Airways, an airline also based in Heraklion, that never started revenue flights.

Virgin Sun Airlines

Virgin Sun Airlines, branded as Virgin Sun, was a British charter airline owned by the Virgin Group, formed in 1998. The airline's main destinations were the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

Fly Hellas

Fly Hellas was a privately owned charter airline. Its main base is Athens International Airport.

Bamboo Airways JSC, operating as Bamboo Airways, is a Vietnamese leisure airline owned by the FLC Group, registered in Quy Nhơn, Vietnam, with a head office in Cầu Giấy District, Hanoi. Founded in 2017, the airline launched operations on 16 January 2019. It operates a mixed fleet of narrowbody and widebody aircraft, and has hubs at Noi Bai International Airport and Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

References

  1. ↑ "Operators by state" (PDF). icao.int. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International . 3 April 2007. p. 90.
  3. ↑ Hellas Jet amateur fleet list
  4. ↑ Pictures: Probe begins into Sabena Technics hangar fire
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.