Balair
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| Founded | 1953 | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 1965 | ||||||
| Ceased operations | 1993 | ||||||
| Fleet size | See Historical fleet details below | ||||||
| Parent company | Schweizerische Luftverkehr AG | ||||||
| Headquarters | Basel, Basel-Stadt, Switzerland | ||||||
Balair was a Swiss airline that became BalairCTA when it merged with CTA/Compagnie de Transport Aerien in 1993. Balair had its headquarters in Basel.[1]
Contents
Code information
- ICAO Code: BBB
- IATA Code: BB
- Call Sign: Balair
Company history
Pre World War Two
In the history of aviation in Switzerland, there are two Balair airlines; the first one existed from 1925 to 1931[2] and was a progenitor of Swissair. On March 26, 1931, "Swissair - Schweizerische Luftverkehr AG" ("Swissair - Swiss Aviation AG") was founded through the fusion of the airlines Ad Astra Aero (founded in 1919) and Balair.
1953 onwards
The second Balair started in 1953 as a flying school and pilot training organisation. Commercial service began with the acquisition of a Vickers VC.1 Viking in June 1957. Soon afterwards, Swissair invested heavily in Balair and in 1959, two Douglas DC-4s were acquired from Swissair. During that time, Balair flew charter flights and did so for many years. In 1960, the Douglas DC-6 came into service.
Scheduled service started in 1965 and cities served were: Basel (for which the airline is named), Geneva, Bern and Frankfurt. The DC-4s were replaced by Fokker F27 Friendship sometime in the late 1960s.
The airline's first jet aircraft was the Convair 990 Coronado and then the Douglas DC-9-32 entered service followed by a Douglas DC-8-63 which it flew on routes to Colombo, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro. The next expansion came in 1974 when flights to the USA were started and five years later a Douglas DC-10-30 was acquired.
Balair became an all jet airline in 1982 and by 1986 the Airbus A310-325 and the MD-80 were the mainstay of the fleet. By this time, Swissair was a majority owner and in 1993 merged Balair with another subsidiary, CTA (Compagnie de Transport Aerien) to form BalairCTA.[3]
Balair CTA became Belair after the demise of the Swissair Group.
Historical fleet details
- Vickers VC.1 Viking
- Douglas DC-4
- Douglas DC-6A
- Douglas DC-6B
- Douglas DC-6BF
- Sud SE-210 Caravelle
- Fokker F27 Friendship
- Douglas DC-9-32
- Douglas DC-8-62F and Douglas DC-8-73F
- Douglas DC-10-30
- MD-80, MD-82, MD-83 and MD-87
- Airbus A310-325
- Boeing 757-2G5
- Boeing 767-35H(ER) and 767-3BG(ER)
References
- ↑ "World Airline Directory." Flight International. April 13, 1967. 560.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Hengi,[page needed]
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balair. |
