Maersk Air
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Maersk Air is Denmark's largest privately owned airline, based in Copenhagen. It also has a secondary hub in Billund. It is part of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and is engaged in international scheduled air services, charter flights, leasing of aircraft and air freight. Maersk Air is part of a large group of companies that use the name Maersk. Other areas where the name is used include shipping, petroleum, data, sea container services and more.
Maersk_Logo.jpg
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History
The A.P. Moller - Maersk Group began to investigate opportunities to expand into airline operations in the mid-1960s. With the company's strong profile and experience in international merchant shipping since the beginning of the 20th century, and the Group's many other transport activities, air frieght was seen as the next step in the progression of the company. However, as Danish law precluded chartered air freight in Denmark (a policy not rescinded until 1987), Maersk instead took over the Falck Air company in 1969, which operated a scheduled service between Copenhagen and Odense. Maersk Air was born, and three new Fokker F-27 aircraft were purchased for the service, and charter, operations.
Services to Vágar in the Faroe Islands started in 1971, and in the same year Maersk, together with Scandinavian Airlines System and Cimber Air, agreed to form 'DANAIR' to act as an umbrella company to co-ordinate Danish domestic services.
Boeing 707 aircraft were purchased in 1973 to allow for expansion in the charter holiday market, and at the same time the company aquired its first helicopters to serve the North Sea oil fields from Esbjerg. The Maersk corporate identity of sky blue and the seven-pointed star logo. The Maersk name is applied to the aircraft for the first time. However, throughout this time, financial results remained disappointing, and major restructuring was necessary in the early 1980s to ensure the airline's survival.
Boeing 737s were introduced in 1976, and the company became a test case for the Boeing Aircraft Company, which evaluated the performance of the airline's 737 on the short runway at Vágar Airport in the Faroes. Mearsk would also be a test company for Boeing with the 737-300 in 1985, and the 737-700 in 1995.
The first international routes were established in the early 1980s, first to Stavanger in Norway and to Southend-on-Sea in the United Kingdom. Mearsk also takes full ownership of Copenhagen Airport Services (now Novia) in 1989, previously having been a shareholder. A cargo centre was established in Copenhagen, initially with German carrier Lufthansa, however Maersk now operate the facility on their own.
The 1990s saw considerable expansion in the number of European destinations served, and the fleet grew to accomodate. Maersk also purchased 49% of Estonian Air, but this was later divested in 2003.
A new livery was introduced in 2004, consisting of a white forward fuselage, deep blue rear fuselage (diagonally separated) with the sky blue at the bottom rear of the fuselage (again, separated diagonally). Maersk is written in bold white titles down the tailfin, the star logo moving next to the deep blue Maersk titled on the forward upper fuselage. This replaced the all-over sky blue with deep blue stripe that had been used since the 1970s
Services to the Faroe Islands, operated almost since conception, ended in 2004, replaced by a code sharing agreement with Faroese carrier Atlantic Airways. Code sharing is also in place with Cimber Air, which took over most of Maersk's domestic services and those to Norway and Sweden.
Destinations
- Austria
- Belgium
- Denmark
- France
- Bastia (from 2006)
- Bordeaux
- Marseille
- Nice (Côte d'Azur International Airport)
- Paris (Charles De Gaulle)
- Toulouse
- Egypt
- Germany
- Greece
- Athens (Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport))
- Salonika (from 2006)
- Italy
- Catania
- Florence (from 2006)
- Milan (Malpensa Airport)
- Naples (from 2006)
- Rome (Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport)
- Venice (Marco Polo International Airport)
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Portugal
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Kingdom
Fleet
The Maersk Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (at April 2005):
External Links
- Maersk Air (http://www.maersk-air.com/)
- Maersk Air Fleet Detail (http://www.planemad.net/Airline/DK/Maersk_Air_(DM_DAN)/Fleet.htm?show=all)
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