The Airline: Tiara Air

Tiara Air Aruba is an airline based in Aruba. Tiara Air has flights to Curaçao, Punto Fijo, Bonaire and Riohacha. The airline is operating two Shorts 360 twin-engine turboprop aircraft built in 1983 and it is rumored there are plans to upgrade its current fleet with regional turboprops/jets. The airline is currently based at Queen Beatrix International Airport. Alejandro Muyale, the director, named the airline after his daughter Tiara Muyale. The word "tiara" is derived from Latin, meaning "crown".

The air agency is now located in Sabana Blanco, Oranjestad. Since November 2008, they have also added a service center on Curaçao, it is located in Parera, Willemstad and since 18 July 2010, they have also added a Service Center on Bonaire, in Kralendijk.

Alejandro Muyale (whose family owned business has been performing "Ground Handling Services" at Aruba Airport for over 30 years now and at Curaçao Airport for more than 6 years) fulfilled his dream of applying for certification with the Department of Civil Aviation. The Economic Authority has been granted, the aircraft, a 36-seater Shorts 360 and a second aircraft was purchased soon afterwards - both from Pacific Coastal Airlines in Canada.

Alejandro Muyale, owner, Managing Director and CEO, named the airline after his daughter Tiara Muyale. The word "tiara" is derived from Latin, meaning "crown".
Tiara Air flies from Aruba to destinations Bonaire, Curaçao, Riohacha in Colombia & both Maracaibo & Punto Fijo/Las Piedras, Venezuela.
There are daily flights to Curaçao & Punto Fijo/Las Piedras, Venezuela and scheduled flights to Bonaire & Riohacha, Colombia (for detailed information on the flights you can consult their website) Tiara Air will be adding new destinations to its regular routes and consequently the market will dictate future developments.

A Tiara Air Short 360 at Aruba Airport in its Old Colors(2011).
Routes like Bonaire and Riohacha are limited due to weight restrictions and although the plane carries 36 passengers, the flights to Bonaire are usually limited to 33 passengers and Riohacha flights are usually limited to 30 passengers.

As of October 2010, the airline now offers various new services to customers in the form of the option for online check in, new cargo services which is available for operations between the islands of Aruba, Bonaire & Curaçao and also including the airport tax for the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, in purchased tickets.

In March 2011, the airline announced it would be soon offering Air Ambulance Services, which will be operated with an advanced life support-equipped Learjet 35 with pilots, medical and nursing staff that are 24 hours on call. Service will currently be offered to Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. In addition to the Air Ambulance service, the airline has announced it will begin service to 3 new Colombian destinations, after complying with all the requirements and norms based on the rules and regulations of the Aeronautics of Colombia better known as RAC. The petition of Tiara Air was approved to provide International Air Transport service to both passengers and cargo in the newly announced Colombian routes. Tiara will soon be offering flights to Cúcuta, Rionegro & Armenia in Colombia which will be operated by a Boeing B737.
Tiara Air strives to stick to its current slogan, for being On Time, Accommodating and Sympatic.

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The Airline: Air Mauritius

Air Mauritius Limited, doing business as Air Mauritius, is the flag carrier of Mauritius. The airline is headquartered at the Air Mauritius Centre in Port Louis, Mauritius. Its main base is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport.

The carrier is 51% owned by Air Mauritius Holdings Ltd., which is in turn owned in its majority by the Mauritian Government. Air Mauritius' wholly owned subsidiaries are Airmate Ltd., Air Mauritius Holidays (Pty) Ltd. Australia, Air Mauritius SA (Proprietary) Ltd., Mauritian Holidays Ltd. (UK) and Mauritius Helicopters Ltd.; partly owned subsidiaries are Mauritius Estate Development Corporation Ltd. (93.7%), Pointe Coton Resort Hotel Company Ltd. (54.2%), and Mauritius Shopping Paradise Company Ltd. (41.7%).

The company is the fourth largest carrier in Sub-Saharan Africa, and has an important standing in the European, African, and Indian Ocean region markets; the airline won the “2011 Indian Ocean Leading Airline Prize”, making it the seventh year in a row for it to win the award. It also performs a range of services in Mauritius for international airlines. Out of a five-star ranking, the carrier's inflight service is awarded 3 stars by Skytrax

The company was set up on 14 June 1967 by Air France, the BOAC enterprise, and the Government of Mauritius, with a 27.5% stake each; the balance was held by Rogers and Co. Ltd., the general sales agent for Air France and BOAC within Mauritius.

In the beginning, the carrier operated international services in conjunction with Air France, Air India and British Airways, which jointly had a 25% holding in Air Mauritius at that time. Until 1972, the company restricted its activities to ground services only; it started flight operations in its own right in August 1972 with a six-seater Piper PA-31 Navajo aircraft leased from Air Madagascar, connecting Mauritius with Rodrigues. In 1973, a wet-leased Vickers VC10 from British Airways enabled the company to launch a long-haul route to London via Nairobi. Likewise, long-range operations in its own right started on 1 November 1977, using a Boeing 707 wet-leased from British Airtours.

During the 1970s and 1980s, long-haul routes were operated with Boeing 707s and Boeing 747 SPs. These aircraft have been gradually replaced with Boeing 767s and Airbus A340s, introduced in 1988 and 1994, respectively. African medium-haul routes started utilizing the Airbus A319 following its delivery in 2001, and ATR 42s and ATR 72s were introduced in 1987 and 2002, respectively, to operate inter-island services.
In 1995, the company was listed on the stock exchange of Mauritius.[citation needed] As of 31 March 2011, shareholders having more than 5% of participation in the airline are Air Mauritius Holdings (51%) and the government of Mauritius (8.4%), while other investors hold a 19.9% stake in the company. It employs a staff 2,761 strong (at March 2007).

The airline has the Paille-en-Queue, a fish-eating tropical bird, as its symbol

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The Airline: Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines, formerly Ethiopian Air Lines, often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is an airline headquartered on the grounds of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It serves as the country's flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia. From its hub in Bole International Airport the airline serves a network of 62 international destinations and 16 domestic ones. The carrier flies to more destinations in Africa than any other airline. Likewise, it is one of the few Sub-Saharan profitable airlines, as well as one the fastest growing airlines in the industry. The airline's cargo division has been awarded The African Cargo Airline of the Year in early 2011.
As of December 2011 the airline is a Star Alliance member. Ethiopian is also a member of the International Air Transport Association, and of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) since 1968.

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The Airline: Malév Hungarian Airlines

Malév Ltd. (Hungarian: Malév Zrt.), which did business as Malév Hungarian Airlines (Hungarian: Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat, abbreviated Malév, and pronounced MAH-lev), was the flag carrier and principal airline of Hungary between 1946 and 2012. It had its head office in the Lurdy House in Budapest, with its main operations at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport. From there, the airline flew to 50 cities in 34 countries worldwide using a fleet of 22 aircraft. In its final years, Malév was a member of the Oneworld alliance, having joined 29 March 2007. On 3 February 2012, Malév grounded all planes and cancelled all flights because planes were held overseas for unpaid debts. On 14 February 2012 the Metropolitan Court of Budapest declared Malév Ltd. insolvent and ordered its liquidation.

Before its closure, the airline had 2,600 employees and had almost half of all of the air traffic at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport. In 2011 about 40% of the revenues at Budapest airport originated from Malév operations, and during that year the airline served 9.2 million passengers.

Malév's head office is located inside the Lurdy House (Lurdy Ház) in Budapest. Lurdy Ház, an office and shopping complex, opened in the autumn of 1998. Previously the airline head office was located in another area in Budapest. At one time 600 employees occupied two floors and about 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) of space. In 2011 the airline stopped using one floor and consolidated its remaining employees into a smaller office area.

Hungarian description below:

A Malév (Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat) (IATA kódja MA, ICAO kódja MAH, hívójele Malev) közép-európai légi fuvarozó, Magyarország nemzeti légitársasága, amely 22 repülőgépével a világ 83 városába szállította az utasokat (a Malév betűszó a Magyar Légiközlekedési Vállalat cégnévből ered).

Igazgatósága Budapesten van, bázisrepülőtere a Budapest Liszt Ferenc Nemzetközi Repülőtér.

A Malév 33 országban képviseli magát képviseletek és vezérügynökök útján.[forrás?] A légitársaság járatain 2010-ben több mint 3 millió fizető utas repült. Ugyanebben az évben elnyerte a legjobb kelet-európai légitársaságnak járó World Airline Awards díjat

2012. február 2-án a Fővárosi Bíróság csődvédelem alá helyezte a céget, aminek hatására február 3-án a partnerek és a repülőterek csak azonnali fizetés esetén biztosítottak volna szolgáltatást, így a Malév leállította az üzemszerű működést, nem indít járatokat. Több gépet a cég tartozása fejében külföldön visszatartottak.

2012. február 3-án 06:00-kor a Malév hivatalosan felfüggesztette a repülési tevékenységét, a bejelentés utáni órákban számos külföldi hírportál (többek között BBC, AFP, US Today) közölt elemzéseket a Malév összeomlásához vezető lehetséges okokról

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The Airline: Jetstar Airways

Jetstar Airways is an Australian low-cost airline headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. It is a subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by low-cost airline Virgin Blue (now known as Virgin Australia). The airline operates an extensive domestic network as well as regional and international services from its main base at Melbourne Airport, using a mixed fleet of Airbus A320 family and Airbus A330 aircraft.
Parent company Qantas also has stakes in sister companies Jetstar Asia Airways and Valuair in Singapore, Jetstar Pacific Airlines in Vietnam and new upcoming carriers in Asia Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Hong Kong. Jetstar shares its parent's strong competition with Australia's biggest low-cost carrier Virgin Australia. Both Tiger Airways Singapore and Tiger Airways Australia are also major competitors to Jetstar in the low-cost market.

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The Airline: Transavia Airlines

Transavia Airlines C.V., styled as transavia.com and known as Transavia, is a Dutch based low-cost airline operating as an independent part of the Air France-KLM group. Its main base is at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol while Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM), and Eindhoven Airport (EIN) are its secondary hubs. In France, Paris-Orly Airport is the main base of its French affiliate. Transavia.com chiefly operates scheduled and charter services to leisure destinations. It is headquartered in the TransPort Building at Schiphol Airport in Haarlemmermeer


The airline was established in the end of 1965 as Transavia Limburg. John Block (1929–1994) (former co-founder of Martinair and later founder of Air Holland) bought the 'sleeping' airline and renamed it Transavia Holland, with operations starting on 17 November 1966. Building up the airline from scratch, ten years later Transavia had a marketshare of 45% of the Dutch holiday market and became the main competitor of Martinair. In 1986, the Transavia Holland brand was changed into Transavia Airlines. It was the first airline to take advantage of the first open skies agreement signed between the UK and Dutch governments. Transavia started operating its first scheduled service on the Amsterdam to London Gatwick route on 26 October 1986.
During 1991, the airline's major shareholder, Nedlloyd, sold its 80% holding to KLM. In 1998, Transavia was the first foreign airline to operate domestic services in Greece following a change in Greek aviation law. In June 2003, KLM acquired the remaining 20% of Transavia, making it 100% KLM owned. The subsequent merger of Air France and KLM made Transavia a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France-KLM.

In the early 2000s, Transavia was primarily a charter airline with a low-cost airline subsidiary called Basiq Air. To strengthen its brand image, the two were combined under the transavia.com name on 1 January 2005.
Transavia has a French unit, Transavia France, based at Paris-Orly, which operates ten 737-800s. A Danish unit, Transavia Denmark, based at Copenhagen was operated until the end of April 2011, but was shut down after failing to meet expectations.

Dutch description below:
Transavia Airlines, im Außenauftritt meist transavia.com, ist eine niederländische Fluggesellschaft mit Sitz in Haarlemmermeer und ein Tochterunternehmen von Air France-KLM. Ihre Heimatbasis befindet sich auf dem Flughafen Amsterdam und weitere Stützpunkte auf den Flughäfen Rotterdam und Eindhoven.


Das Unternehmen wurde 1965 von einem belgischen Fahrradfabrikanten und einem schottischen Geschäftsmann gegründet. Da die Fluggesellschaft ihren Sitz in der niederländischen Provinz Limburg hatte, nannten sie sie Transavia Limburg NV. Die Gesellschaft wurde am 15. Juli 1966 in Transavia Holland umbenannt und begann am 17. November 1966 mit dem Flugbetrieb.
1991 verkaufte Royal P&O Nedlloyd ihren Anteil von 80 % an der Fluggesellschaft Transavia Holland an die KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Im Juni 2003 übernahm KLM die restlichen 20 % und Transavia wurde 2004 im Zuge des Zusammenschlusses von KLM und Air France ein Tochterunternehmen von Air France-KLM.

Anfang der 2000er-Jahre agierte das Unternehmen unter der Bezeichnung BasiqAir zusätzlich als Billigfluggesellschaft. Die Flüge in diesem Geschäftsfeld werden jedoch seit dem 1. Januar 2005 wieder unter der Marke transavia.com durchgeführt. Am 12. Mai 2007 nahm die Tochtergesellschaft Transavia France ihren Betrieb mit Flügen vom Flughafen Paris-Orly auf.

Die Insolvenz der Fluggesellschaft Sterling Airlines veranlasste Transavia Ende 2008 zur Gründung der Tochtergesellschaft Transavia Denmark mit Sitz und Basis in Kopenhagen. Diese wurde jedoch im April 2011 aufgrund nicht erfüllter Geschäftsziele wieder aufgelöst

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