GEORGIAN AIRLINES: Georgia (1997-1999). Georgian Airline-Orbi and Orbi Georgian Airlines are merged in March 1997. David Davitdze becomes director general and the fleet is rationalized at 2 Tupolev Tu-134As, 3 Tu-154Bs, and 5 Yakovlev Yak-40s. The schedule introduced on July 1 is significantly increased.
Flights continue in 1998-1999 as airline employment grows to 488. The state, which had acquired full ownership, issues a privatization tender for the sale of a 49% stake during July of the former year.
Destinations visited on a scheduled basis include Adler/Sochi, Athens, Kiev, Moscow, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Tehran, Tel Aviv, Thessaloniki, and Volgograd. Cooperative agreements are signed with Air India, Ltd., Caspian Airlines, and Swissair, A. G.
When the winter schedule is released at the end of October, it shows the carrier with daily service to Prague, Moscow, and Tel Aviv; flights to Thessaloniki and Athens five times a week; thrice-weekly service to Frankfurt; as well as weekly or twice-weekly flights to Adler/Sochi, Kiev, Rostov, St. Petersburg, Tehran, and Volgograd.
The company is merged with Air Georgia on October 31 to form Airzena Georgian Airlines.
GEORGIAN BAY AIRLINES, LTD.: Canada (1946-1992). Established by the Powell family at Parry Sound, Ontario, in 1946, this small charter operator undertakes both passenger and cargo flights to large and bush destinations in the Georgian Bay area.
Twenty-five years later, the company, which also operates a flight school, introduces a scheduled passenger service linking its base with Sans Souci. In 1981, President F. D. Powell and operations manager B. D. Powell oversee 25 employees and a fleet of 10 Piper PA-23 Aztecs and 1 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver. Flights continue during the remainder of the decade and into the 1990s, ceasing in 1992.
GEOTERREX AND SOUTHERN COMMANDER (PTY.), LTD.: c/o Western Commander (Pty.), 17, Dumeries Terrace, Greenvale, Victoria, 3047, Australia; Phone 61 (3) 9374 2239; Fax 61 (3) 9379 8460; Year Founded 1996. GASC is set up at Greenvale in 1996 to provide nonscheduled domestic passenger and cargo charters. Revenue flights begin with one each CASA C-212-200 Aviocar and a Cessna 404 Titan.
GERMAN CARGO AIRLINES, GmbH.: Germany (1977-1995). The Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. charter subsidiary GCA is established on March 10, 1977 to supplement the freight capability of the parent airline. Wilhelm Althen and Sigfried Koehler are named joint managing directors and the company is capitalized at DM 1.5 million. GCA is equipped with 2 B-707-330Cs painted curry-yellow and transferred from the parent’s fleet; operations commence on April 1 with a Frankfurt-Hong Kong charter. Maintenance is contracted with the parent and flight crews are also loaned to the subsidiary. Until the mid-1980s, annual freight and financial figures will be combined with those of Lufthansa.
On October 20, 1979, a third B-707-330C is assigned to German Cargo. A new cargo marketing scheme is unveiled in the spring of 1980 and a fourth B-707-330C is added to the fleet. GCA, in 1981-1982, begins to specialize in the carriage of livestock, developing special aluminum horse stalls and cattle containers.
On June 1, 1983, German Cargo places a DM 220-million order for four reengined Douglas DC-8-73s from Cammacorp in the U. S. Meanwhile, pilots for them are trained by United Airlines.
The four DC-8-63s are flown from Dallas, Texas, to Paris (Le Bour-get Airport) between July and October 1984. In France, the four aircraft are outfitted to German specifications by UTA French Airlines, S. A., with the first entering German Cargo service in September.
The last of the four B-707-330C freighters, representing the last of its type in Lufthansa service, is retired on December 31. Principal routes for the carrier’s charter and contract cargo flights are to Africa and the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, Cairo, and Nairobi.
Airline employment in 1985 stands at 248 as a fifth DC-8-73 freighter is acquired. GCA begins to undertake its own maintenance and, during the year, the final B-707-330C is sold. A total of 172,767 FTKs are operated. A net $1.8-million profit is earned atop an operating gain of $900,000.
The workforce is cut by 7.6% in 1986 to 230 and a plan to purchase the failed British cargo airline Tradewinds, Ltd. is shelved when it is learned that the prospective-parent’s DC-8-73s cannot win certification in the U. K. Cargo traffic rebounds to advance by 13.4% to 199,500 FTKs. Revenues ascend 10% to $73.6 million, but costs also climb, resulting in a $300,000 drop in operating profit and a $600,000 decline in net gain.
During 1987-1988 , North and South American destinations are added to the route network. During the summer of the former year, the convertible Dash-73 is employed for passenger charters by sister carrier Condor Flugdienst, GmbH. Managing Director Siegfried Koehler’s company also begins flying all-cargo service to Hong Kong and Bangkok on behalf of its parent.
In March 1989, the company begins five-times-per-week service between Frankfurt and Birmingham, the first scheduled all-cargo service from Germany to that British city. B-747F Frankfurt to Dallas (DFW) flights commence in June and twice-weekly all-cargo frequencies are initiated from Frankfurt to San Francisco in November.
Airline employment stands at 385 in 1990. The fleet comprises 3 Boeing 747Fs, 5 DC-8-73Fs, and 2 B-737-230Fs, the latter received in May. In October, a B-737-210C is leased from Atlanta Icelandic Airlines,
H. F. for 18 months. Freight traffic declines 6.2% to 212.3 million FTKs.
In October 1991, the company joins with Air Rwanda, S. A. to begin joint cargo service from Frankfurt to Kigali; the airlines alternate on the weekly flight, GCA employing a DC-8-73F and Air Rwanda, S. A.’s B-707F.
In one of the most unusual freight deliveries of all time, a DC-8-73, on October 11, transports 1.3 billion sterilized male fly larvae from Tuxtla, Mexico, to Tripoli, Libya, to help Colonel Qaddafi’s government combat the parasite known as the New World screwworm.
At the end of the year, a B-737-230F becomes the first “Baby Boeing” in the world to be equipped with a Nordam noise-suppressing “hush kit” unit installed by DLH technicians at Berlin’s Schoenfeld Airport. It will enter service during the following January. Traffic figures are not released for the year; however, sources report a $5.6-million profit.
The system of joint managing directors is maintained in 1992 and in 1993 they are Dietmar Kirchner Johannes and Heinrich Irle. Airline employment now stands at 673. Destinations visited from Frankfurt include Aden, Addis Ababa, Asmara, Bahrain, Bujumbura, Bangalore, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calcutta, Damascus, Dakar, Doha, Entebbe, Harare, Kigali, Khartoum, Lusaka, Madras, Montevideo, Nairobi, Sana’a, Santiago, and Sao Paulo.
To cut costs, Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. Chairman Jurgen Weber unveils a new program on November 27, 1994 that will eliminate 8,400 jobs, abolish unprofitable routes, spin off air freight, catering, and some passenger services to independent subsidiaries called profit centers. Lufthansa Cargo Airlines, A. G., as the renamed German Cargo Airlines becomes known, stands alone as of January 1, 1995.
GERMAN WINGS, GmbH.: Germany (1989-1990). The privately owned independent GW is established at Munich in January 1989 to provide regional and domestic all-business-class services with a fleet of four McDonnell Douglas MD-83s. Ownership is divided between publishing executives Franz and Frieder Burda, who also own the airliners (45%), joint managing directors Peter and Christian Kimmel (40%), and the venture capital firm Bayerische Unternechmens-Beteilgungsge-sellschaft, A. G. Capitalization is DM55 million ($32 million). The employee population totals 510.
Operations commence in April, as routes are stretched to Frankfurt, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, and Paris. An inability to obtain sufficient slots at German airports and a slow domestic market caused by recession lead to significant financial difficulties. It requires a court order to force Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. to complete interlining agreements that it had declined to sign. Still, two more MD-83s are received in October and November, one purchased and one on lease from Air Libertie, S. A.
Early in 1990, as fiscal difficulties mount, the carrier unsuccessfully attempts to negotiate partnerships with other airlines, including Swissair, A. G., SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System), and British Airways, Ltd. (2). Meanwhile, intense competition from Deutsche Lufthansa, A. G. is encountered in late winter and spring and leads the carrier to shut down on April 30 and file for bankruptcy in early May. Prior to its cessation, the new entrant transports some 450,000 passengers; as part of a planned expansion, the state carrier accepts passengers with German Wings tickets and hires a number of the former regional’s employees.
World History
