ASL Aviation Holdings DAC

Last updated

ASL Aviation Holdings
FormerlyASL Aviation Group
TypeDesignated activity company
IndustryAviation services
Founded1970
Headquarters
Number of locations
26 Companies including aircraft leasing entities
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Dave Andrew (Chief Executive)
  • Colin Grant (Chief Operating Officer)
  • Mark O'Kelly (Chief Financial Officer)
Number of employees
3,000
Subsidiaries
Website https://www.aslaviationholdings.com/

ASL Aviation Holdings DAC (ASL), formerly the ASL Aviation Group, is an aviation services holding company focused on cargo and passenger airline operations, aircraft leasing and maintenance and aircraft parts support, based in Dublin, Ireland. [1] Today, ASL has eight airlines in Europe, South Africa, Asia and Australia, consisting of ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines United Kingdom in Europe, ASL Airlines Australia, formally Pionair Australia in Australia and joint venture and associate airlines FlySafair in South Africa, K-Mile Asia in Thailand and Quikjet Airlines in India. [2]

Contents

ASL also has various aircraft maintenance and aircraft support companies - ASL Maintenance (formally X-air services), ASL Airlines Services Switzerland and ASL Airlines Hungary.

In 2022, the company reported a profit of €46.6 million in 2021 revenues of €1.13 billion. [3]

History

The group began with Safair Freighters, founded in South Africa in 1970, which with Safmarine acquired Tropair. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom in 1972, Air Bridge Carriers was established. In September 1992, the company was renamed Hunting Cargo Airlines and in 1997 all airline operations were transferred to Ireland. In 1994, Safair Freighters was renamed Safair and as a result of the Hunting Group's sale of its aviation-related companies in June 1998 to the joint consortium of Compagnie Maritime Belge/Safair (party of the Imperial Group), the airline was rebranded the company as Air Contractors.

The Imperial Group transferred its shares in the company to 3P Air Freighters in 2007. Air Contractors acquired French carrier Europe Airpost on 14 March 2008. [4] Following the acquisition of EAP into the ASL group of companies, the group was rebranded ASL Aviation Group, representing the three core activities of the group; Airlines, Support and Leasing.

In 2010, the acquisition of the Safair Group was finalised and in 2013 Safair introduced a broad-based black economic empowerment programme, allowing ASL to retain a minority share in the company.

Low-cost airline FlySafair was established by Safair in 2013. On 4 December 2014, the company acquired the Farnair Group in Switzerland. [5]

On 4 June 2015, ASL Aviation Group announced that Air Contractors would be rebranded as ASL Airlines Ireland, Europe Airpost as ASL Airlines France, Farnair Hungary as ASL Airlines Hungary and Farnair Switzerland as ASL Airlines Switzerland. [6]

The company acquired TNT Airways and PAN Air on 12 February 2016 and became ASL Airlines Belgium and ASL Airlines Spain. [7]

In 2017, ASL Aviation Group was renamed to ASL Aviation Holdings. ASL Airlines Switzerland ceased airline operations on 1 February 2018, [8] while ASL Airlines Spain ceased all operations in August 2018. [9]

On 4 June 2019, STAR Capital Partnership became the 100% shareholder in the company. [10] In 2021, ASL Airlines United Kingdom was launched. [11]

In 2021, the company reported profits of €43.6m after tax and revenue of €1,131.5m with cash reserves increasing to 46.3% year on year to €192.2m. [3]

ASL acquired 100% ownership of ASL Maintenance (formally X-air services) on 9 August 2022. [12] The company was previously jointly-owned on a fifty-fifty based by ASL and Sabena technics.

In December 2022, the company re-launched joint-venture airline Quikjet Airlines with the renewal of a new air operators certificate and the delivery of its first Boeing 737-800BCF. [13] On 9 January 2023, Quikjet relaunched operations in India with a second Boeing 737-800BCF operating on behalf of Amazon Air. [14]

On 4 March 2023, the company acquired Australian airline Pionair, now rebranded as ASL Airlines Australia. [15]

Operations

ASL Airlines operates ACMI services on charter cargo transport services on behalf of express integrators and online retailers such as FedEx Express, Amazon Air, UPS and DHL. ASL aircraft operate scheduled and charter cargo services under the brand ASL Airlines on routes in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Africa. [2] These include ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines United Kingdom, ASL Airlines Australia, K-Mile Asia, and Safair.

ASL Airlines France and FlySafair are the company's scheduled passenger services, based in Europe and South Africa respectively. [2]

ASL has a leasing division, focusing cargo aircraft leasing and sales options to operators. [2]

The company has two maintenance and aircraft parts support subsidiaries, ASL Maintenance and ASL Airlines Services Switzerland

Fleet

The company has a global fleet of 160 aircraft. As of August 2023, the fleet consists of: [16]

ASL Airlines Fleet - August 2023
AircraftTypeIn FleetOperated By
ATR 72-200Freighter2ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines United Kingdom
ATR 72-500Freighter5ASL Airlines Ireland
ATR 72-600Freighter6ASL Airlines Ireland
Boeing 737-800Freighter44ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines United Kingdom, K-Mile Asia, Quikjet Airlines
Boeing 737-400Freighter40 + 1 combiASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, Safair, K-Mile Asia
Boeing 747-400Freighter5ASL Airlines Belgium
Airbus A330-300Freighter3ASL Airlines Ireland
Airbus A300-600Freighter4ASL Airlines Ireland
Boeing 737-300QCPassenger2ASL Airlines France
Boeing 737-800Passenger29ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines Australia, FlySafair
Boeing 737-400Passenger5ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines Australia, FlySafair
Boeing 737-700Passenger1ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines Australia
Bae 146/RJPassengerASL Airlines Australia
Embraer 190-E2PassengerASL Airlines Australia

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References

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  4. "Press Release: Acquisition of Europe Air Post by Air Contractors". Air Contractors. 14 March 2008. Archived from the original on 8 July 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
  5. "ASL Aviation Group complete acquisition of Farnair". FlyingInIreland.com. 25 February 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  6. "Ireland based ASL Aviation Group is to launch a new European airline brand, ASL Airlines, as part of its strategy for continued growth in passenger and cargo operations". ASL Aviation Group. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  7. Hamill, Laura (12 February 2016). "ASL Aviation Group acquire TNT and Pan Air Lineas Aereas". Aviation Week & Space Technology . Retrieved 2 August 2023.
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  9. "ASL Airlines Spain on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  10. "STAR Capital Completes Acquisition of ASL". Aviator. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  11. Drum, Bruce (31 March 2021). "ASL Airlines UK commences operations". World Airline News. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
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  15. Kulisch, Eric (5 April 2023). "FedEx airfreight partner ASL Aviation acquires Australia's Pionair". FreightWaves. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
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