Sterling Airlines

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Sterling Airlines A/S is an Icelandic owned low-fare airline, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was created in September 2005 through the merger of two Danish airlines - Sterling European Airlines A/S and Maersk Air A/S - which had been bought by Icelandic investment group Fons Eignarhaldsfelag a few months before. One month after the merger, Sterling Airlines was sold to the FL Group, which owns Icelandair as well as 16.8% of Europe's largest low-fare airline, easyJet.

On 6 January 2006, Hannes Smárason, CEO of the FL Group, stated that a merger of easyJet and Sterling was a possibility.

At the end of 2005 Sterling Airlines had 1,600 staff and 29 aircraft, making it almost twice as large as Icelandair. The company flew to some European 40 destinations, with Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm as principal hubs.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Code Data
4 Fleet
5 External links

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History

For the history of Maersk Air, see Maersk Air.

Sterling Airlines traces its history back to 1962, when Ejlif Krogager, founder of Danish travel agency Tjæreborg (today part of MyTravel Group), started the charter airline Sterling Airways with two old Douglas DC-6B bought from Swissair, in order to better service his own package tours from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. In 1965 Sterling received its first Caravelle, and in 1968 the company was bought out of the Tjæreborg Group and started servicing other travel agents as well.

In 1987 the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with 19 aircraft and almost 1,300 staff, but a few years later, in 1993, Sterling Airways went bankrupt. In 1994 the estate after Sterling Airways re-created the company as Sterling European Airlines, with three aircraft and 182 staff.

In 1996 Sterling was bought by the Norwegian shipping company Fred. Olsen.

In 2000 Sterling started with regular air services to Malaga and Alicante, to compensate for the diminishing charter travel business. More routes were added in 2001, when it was also decided that Sterling should leave the charter industry and become a fully fledged low-fare airline. During 2002 Sterling opened 21 new routes, primarily between Scandinavia and Southern Europe, but also routes from Copenhagen to Oslo and Stockholm.

In 2003 Sterling expanded its fleet from six to eight aircraft and opened 11 more routes between Scandinavia and Southern Europe. Passenger numbers reached a record high of 1,3 million; a 40 % increase on 2002. In 2004 the fleet grew to 12 aircraft.

In March 2005 Fred. Olsen sold Sterling to the Icelandic investment company Fons Eignarhaldsfelag hf, owners of the small Iceland Express airline, and the managing director of Iceland Express, Almar Örn Hilmarsson, was promoted to new managing director for Sterling. In June 2005 the Fons Eignarhaldsfelag bought Maersk Air from the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and announced that they wanted to merge the two airlines under the Sterling name. In September 2005 the merger was approved by the authorities and Sterling Airlines A/S was thus created - the fourth largest low-fare airline in Europe - and only a month later Fons Eignarhaldsfelag sold the company to the FL Group.

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