Maersk Commuter
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| Founded | 1981 |
|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 1990 |
| Operating bases | Esbjerg Airport |
| Fleet size | 2 |
| Destinations | 4 |
| Parent company | Maersk Air |
| Headquarters | Esbjerg Municipality, Denmark |
| Website | Peter Alkærsig (founder) |
Air Business A/S, later Maersk Commuter I/S, was a Danish regional airline which operated between 1981 and 1990. It was the first Danish airline to break the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) international monopoly and gain a conession to fly an international scheduled service out of Denmark. Air Business was based at Esbjerg Airport and operated a fleet at first of a Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante and from 1984 two Short 360.
The airline started its service from Esbjerg via Thisted Airport to Stavanger Airport, Sola. Air Business was bought by Maersk Air in 1984 and it then replaced Thisted with Aalborg Airport. In addition to the scheduled service, the airline provided wet lease operations to the mother airline. It took the Maersk Commuter name in 1988 and merged with Maersk Air in 1990.
Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) had a monopoly on all international scheduled traffic from Denmark since its establishment in 1961 . Although some flights stopped off at Aarhus, all international traffic had to go through SAS' hub of Copenhagen Airport.
Air Business was established by Peter Alkærsig, a former Second World War fighter pilot and later worked as a commercial pilot in SAS. He founded Air Business at an age of 75 in 1981 and was able to secure the first international scheduled Danish route concession not held by SAS. The route, which commenced in 1982, ran from Esbjerg via Thisted to Stavanger, Norway. The airline initially procured an Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante for the route.
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Wikipedia