QW BWG Operating bases Key people Udo Stern (MD) Headquarters Düsseldorf, Germany Ceased operations 2010 | BWG BLUE WINGS Destinations 15 Website bluewings.com Founded 2002 Fleet size 8 | |
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Blue Wings AG was a charter airline based in Germany, focussing on serving Turkey, the Middle East and Russia from its base at Düsseldorf Airport. The headquarters were located on the airport property.
Contents
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 31 March 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 bankrupt due to the financial crisis which had led to a pull-out of investors. 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 2009:
Africa
Asia
Europe
Fleet
The Blue Wings fleet consisted of the following aircraft (at 25 November 2009):
At closure in January 2010, Blue Wings had unfilled orders for 16 further Airbus A320, 3 Airbus A321 and 5 Tupolev Tu-204.