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.
History
Early years and growth
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.
Development since 2009 and closure
On 30 December 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.
On 5 August 2009, it was announced that Iraqi Airways, Iraq's national airline, had signed a contract to lease three Blue Wings Airbus A320-232, which were used on European routes.
On 13 January 2010, Blue Wings ceased all operations, filing bankruptcy due to the Great Recession and the 2008 financial crisis, which reduced investor interest. The airline's corporate head office was located in Düsseldorf, at Düsseldorf Airport. Before closure it was in Terminal A. Previously it was in Hangar 8 at the same airport.
Destinations
Blue Wings operated the following international scheduled destinations in November 2011:
Africa
- Morocco
- Marrakech - Marrakech-Menara Airport
- Agadir - Agadir–Al Massira Airport
- Tunisia
- Monastir - Habib Bourguiba International Airport
Asia
- Kazakhstan
- Karaganda - Sary-Arka Airport
- Lebanon
- Beirut - Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport
Europe
- Germany
- Berlin - Berlin Schönefeld Airport
- Düsseldorf - Düsseldorf Airport Base
- Hamburg - Hamburg Airport focus city
- Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden - Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport
- Leipzig/Halle - Leipzig/Halle Airport
- Münster/Osnabrück - Münster Osnabrück Airport
- Greece
- Athens - Athens International Airport
- Crete - Heraklion International Airport
- Corfu - Corfu International Airport
- Italy
- Alghero - Alghero-Fertilia Airport
- Rome - Rome Ciampino Airport
- Portugal
- Faro - Faro Airport
- Madeira - Funchal Airport
- Russia
- Moscow - Sheremetyevo International Airport
- Spain
- Barcelona - El Prat Airport
- Gran Canaria - Gran Canaria Airport
- Tenerife - Reina Sofia Airport
- Palma de Mallorca - Palma de Mallorca Airport
- Ibiza - Ibiza Airport
- Málaga - Málaga Airport
- Ukraine
- Kyiv - Boryspil International Airport
- Turkey
- Trabzon - Trabzon Airport
- İzmir - Adnan Menderes International Airport
- Antalya - Antalya Airport
- Samsun - Çarşamba Airport
Fleet
The Blue Wings fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at 25 November 2012):
References
External links
Media related to Blue Wings at Wikimedia Commons
- Blue Wings (Archive, 2009)
- Blue Wings (Archive, 2005-2007)
- Blue Wings (in German) (Archive)
