I-98100, Italy; Phone 39 (961) 724 028; Fax 39 (961) 725 759; Http://www. minerva-airlines. it; Code Q2; Year Founded 1995.
Minerva is set up at Calabria, Italy, in December 1995 to offer regional and domestic charters. Orders are placed for a pair of Fairchild Dornier 328-110s.
Following delivery of the turboprops during August 1996, holiday and tour flights are inaugurated on September 1, beginning with non-scheduled frequencies to Milan. Scheduled services are launched late in the fourth quarter to Naples, Trieste, Bari, and Palermo. Enplanements for the 4 months of the year operated total 23,425.
In 1997, a number of replacement flights are operated on behalf of Alitalia, S. p.A. Two more 328-110s join the fleet and passenger boardings accelerate to 188,884.
In April 1998, Minerva, operating its 7 Dornier 328-100s on 19 Italian domestic routes, becomes a franchise partner of Alitalia, S. p.A., reporting to Alitalia Express, S. p.A. Simultaneously, Azzura Air, S. p.A.
Ends its code-sharing pact with Debonair, Ltd. and also becomes a franchise partner.
Both airlines, in the manner of “British Airways Express,” paint their aircraft in Alitalia colors, with Alitalia interiors. Alitalia uniforms are provided and check-in and ticket counters receive Alitalia branding; indeed, even the supplies used in in-flight meal services come from the Italian major.
Bookings for the year surge to 320,000.
Coming in from Rome on a February 25, 1999 service due to continue on to Trieste, Flight 1553, a Dornier 328-110 with 4 crew and 27 passengers, touches down briefly on the runway at Genoa before crashing into the sea at the end of the 9,925-ft. pavement. Four people are killed and 20 others injured. Bruce Johnson will report in the March 3 issue of The Weekly Telegraph that many more would have died except for the bravery of Marco Sulis, 15, a member of a Sardinian swimming team, who opens one of the exits under water. It is through this door that most of the survivors escape.
Enplanements for the year decline to 213,000.
Daily roundtrip service is inaugurated on March 26, 2000 from Bari to Trieste.
MINERVE (COMPAGNIE FRANCAISE DE TRANSPORTS AERIENS, S. A.): France (1975-1992). This privately owned French charter operator is established at Paris by former Air Cameroon CEO Rene Fernand Meyer in June 1975 to undertake holiday and inclusive-tour flights to various destinations in France and from Paris, Brussels, and Basel to North Africa and the Mideast. President/General Manager Meyer’s 50-employee company, named after the Roman goddess of learning, acquires a Sud-Est SE-210 Caravelle VIR from Sterling Airways, Ltd. and inaugurates charter services in November between Paris and Athens.
An SE-210 Caravelle VIR and two Caravelle VINs are added in 1976-1977; however, late in the decade, one Caravelle VIN is replaced by a Caravelle XR. Government authority to operate either larger equipment or to more distant markets, such as the Caribbean, is twice refused.
In late 1980, the French government agrees to allow Minerve the use of larger aircraft. A Douglas DC-8-53 is purchased from Japan Air Lines Company, Ltd. (2) and arrives at Paris in March 1981. The following month it commences nonscheduled service to Dakar, Barbados, Mombasa, Lima, and Pointe-a-Pitre. Flights to the Guadeloupe market, on behalf of the tour operator Nouvelles Frontieres, must be routed through Brussels.
Enplanements for the year reach 255,000.
These flights continue in 1982 as a second DC-8-53 arrives from JAL. When the flight crews of both Air France and Air Inter go out on strike twice, Minerve is one of the French independents that responds to a government plea for assistance in maintaining schedules. At the same time, Meyer’s carrier agrees to take over the operating certificate of the failed freight airline Air Fret, S. A., as well as its maintenance hangar in the southern city of Nimes.
In light of its assistance to the French government the previous year, the company receives authority in early 1983 to undertake transatlantic charters to the U. S. Arrangements are made with Alitalia, S. p.A. for the purchase of additional aircraft, including two DC-8-61s, a DC-8-62CF, a DC-8-73, and a DC-8-73CF. The CFs are placed on the cargo routes previously operated by Air Fret.
The DC-8-73 inaugurates a new route to Reunion in 1984 while the DC-8-61s inaugurate flights from Paris to New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
Enplanements for the year total 342,720.
Operations by the 205-employee carrier continue apace in 1985, with emphasis on flights to North and South America, as well as contract maintenance and overhaul work at the Toulouse facility. The fleet now includes 1 DC-8-73, 2 DC-8-53s, 2 DC-8-61s, 2 Caravelle XRs, 1 DC-8-73CF, and 1 DC-8-62F.
Customer bookings fall 7.1% to 320,000, but revenues climb 5.3% to $40 million.
Employment increases 95.1% in 1986 to 400 as the number of revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) flown accelerates 24.6% to 1.46 million. Breaking the UTA (French Airlines, S. A.) monopoly on Tahiti, Minerve commences charters to Papeete in August via San Francisco. In the fall, orders are placed for two (later six) McDonnell Douglas MD-83s.
The workforce is increased a further 13.3% in 1987 to 453 as RPKs advance by 25.3% to 1.84 billion. The Canadian subsidiary Minerve Canada, Ltd. is established and a DC-8-61 is leased to it. The subsidiary Jet Alsace, S. A. is formed to acquire the license of grounded Point Air of Basel and the fleet is increased, significantly, by the arrival on December 8 of a leased Boeing 747-283B, formerly flown by SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System).
The fleet in 1988 includes 6 DC-8-62/73s, 2 Caravelle XRs, and 1 B-747-283B. The first two MD-83s are delivered in April and when placed into service, introduce the carrier’s new stylish color scheme and the Minerve tail logo. The Jumbojet enters service on flights from Paris to Reunion and also to Pointe-a-Pitre. Two MD-11s are ordered in September after Airbus Industrie turns down a company request to participate as a launch customer for the A340.
Enplanements total 750,000.
Operations continue apace in 1989 and while awaiting delivery of the MD-11s, the first of three chartered DC-10-30s enters service in April.
Airline employment in 1990 stands at 711. The fleet comprises 1 B-747-283B, 1 DC-8-62CF, 1 DC-8-73, 1 DC-8-73CF, 5 McDonnell Douglas MD-83s, and 1 DC-10-30. The carrier begins to offer direct flights from New York (JFK) to Martinique and Guadeloupe on January 27. In the spring, as recession begins to impact the charter market, the new member of IATA sells 50% shareholding to Club Mediterranee.
Passenger boardings for the year climb to 896,600.
As part of the restructuring of France’s airlines, Minerve is granted permission in 1991 to inaugurate scheduled services, beginning on May 7, from Nice to Paris (ORY) and London and from Paris (ORY) to Barcelona. Other destinations now introduced include flights from the French capital to Papeete via Los Angeles and to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City via California. Also during the spring, weekly roundtrip DC-10-30 frequencies are begun from Paris to Havana on behalf of Cubana (Empresa Consolidada Cubana de Aviacion, S. A.).
When Club Mediterranee acquires majority control of Club Aquarius and its subsidiary airline, Air Liberte, S. A., plans are made to merge the two transport arms. Although the prospect is announced and two
MD-83s are even painted in joint titles, the merger does not occur, primarily because Club Med reduces its interest. At this point, minority shareholder (20%) Credit Lyonnais is able to have one of its executives named Minerve president, easing out founder Meyer. Credit Lyonnais and its Saga banking group now cause Minerve to buy out the financially troubled Air Outre Mer, S. A.
On January 1, 1992, the two airlines are combined to form AOM French Airlines, S. A.
MINERVE CANADA, LTD.: Canada (1987-1992). The French independent Minerve (Compagnie Francaise de Transportes Aeriens, S. A.) establishes this Canadian subsidiary at Montreal during the summer of 1987. Equipped with a single hush-kitted Douglas DC-8-61 leased from the parent, the airline begins passenger charter flights linking its base and Quebec City with destinations in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Florida during the winter.
A second DC-8-61 is acquired in the spring of 1988 and joins its predecessor in inaugurating inclusive tours to France during the summer.
The winter schedule resumes in the fall and in February 1989, biweekly flights are inaugurated from Toronto to the Azores. Operations continue apace in 1990-1991, but cease when Air Outre Mere, S. A. and Minerve merge on January 1, 1992 to form AOM French Airlines, S. A.
World History
