Blue Wings
 |
|||||||
|
|||||||
| Founded | 2002 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 13 January 2010 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Düsseldorf Airport | ||||||
| Fleet size | 8 (at time of closure) | ||||||
| Destinations | 15 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Bocholt, Germany | ||||||
| Key people | Udo Stern (MD) | ||||||
| Website | bluewings.com | ||||||
Blue Wings AG was a charter airline based in Germany, focussing on serving Turkey, the Middle East and Russia from its base at Düsseldorf Airport. The headquarters were located on the airport property.
Blue Wings was established in 2002, received the AOC on 27 June 2003 and started operations in July of the same year. It initially operated charter flights from Düsseldorf using a wet-leased Airbus A320. In June 2006, the Russian National Reserve Corporation (NRC) acquired a 48 percent shareholding through its Zürich based subsidiary Alpstream AG, which was intended to lead to a close co-operation between Blue Wings and Red Wings Airlines, also belonging to NRC.
On 6 October 2006, Blue Wings signed a purchase agreement with JetBlue Airways for five second-hand Airbus A320-200 aircraft. For cost-saving reasons, Blue Wings adopted a nearly identical color scheme compared to JetBlue. On 17 October of the same year, another order - this time for 16 new Airbus A320 and 4 Airbus A321 was signed, and subsequently announced during the Farnborough Air Show of the same year.
On 31 March 2009, the Federal Office for Civil Aviation of Germany revoked the operating license of Blue Wings because of solvency fears, forcing the airline to shut down all operations. Blue Wings was saved for once on 23 April of the same year, when it was announced that Elite Aviation, a VIP charter airline from Abu Dhabi, had signed a charter agreement with Blue Wings. Subsequently, the license was reinstated on 5 May.
...
Wikipedia