Dallas, Wisconsin, in early 1982 to provide scheduled passenger and cargo services with a fleet of Cessna lightplanes. Daily roundtrip and connecting flights are duly inaugurated to New Richmond, Rice Lake, Eau Claire, Duluth, Hayward, Madison, Milwaukee, and down to Chicago, Rockford, Springfield, and Indianapolis. Significantly overextended, the new commuter fails by midyear.
BLUE-LINE AIRWAYS, LTD.: United Kingdom (1946-1949). Businessman Leslie Cooper forms this independent charter carrier at Nottingham’s Tollerton Airport during July 1946, equipping it with two Per-cival Proctor 5s. After developing local travel agencies and acquiring an Auster J/1 Autocrat and an Avro 652 Anson I in February 1947, BlueLine, Ltd. inaugurates summer holiday flights to Guernsey and Jersey.
Success leads to the company’s registration as an airline on June 30, 1948, by which time the fleet includes the above named aircraft, plus four more Ansons and a Miles M.65 Geminia 1A. At the end of the summer season in September, two months of charters are flown London (Croydon)-Paris (LBG).
In January 1949, an ex-British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Douglas DC-3 is purchased. This machine is employed to operate passenger and cargo charters from London’s smaller airports while the Anson’s continue to work the Channel Islands routes with summer traffic. During July-August, the DC-3 makes flights to Syria and Iraq on behalf of the Iraq Petroleum Company.
So far, all services during the year have been operated at a loss and on August 15, the company suddenly ceases operations—leaving 20 passengers stranded in Jersey and 200 passengers booked for future flights holding worthless tickets.
BLUE PANORAMAAIRLINES, S. p.A.: Astra Travel, Via L. Bisso-lai 76, Rome, 00fl87, Italy; Phone 39 (06) 4201 1513; Fax 39 (06) 4200 0757; Code BPA; Year Founded 1998. Blue Panorama is established by Astra Travel and the ITR Group at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport in August 1998 to provide lift for customers on their holiday charter flights to regional destinations. Revenue services by President Franco Pocci’s new airline are inaugurated in December with a Boeing 737-4K5 leased from Hapag-Lloyd Fluggesellschaft mbH.
Flights continue in 1999 as a second B-737-4K5 is also chartered, arriving in time for the beginning of the summer schedule at the end of March. Service to points in North Africa and Europe continue thereafter.
BLUE SCANDINAVIA, A. B. (SVENSKA FLYGBOLAG): Sweden (1997-1998). When Transwede, A. B. is restructured at Stockholm in 1996, the independent Transwede Leisure, A. B. is created to operate charter and inclusive-tour services from northern Europe to the Mediterranean and overseas destinations. On January 1, 1997, the concern is renamed Blue Scandinavia; ownership is divided between the carrier’s management (4%) and the Fritidsresor group of companies KF Invest (38%), Nordic Capital (29%), and Electra (29%). Kjell Fredheim is pres-ident/CEO and a long list of charter clients is assembled, including the Fritidsresor concerns Star Tour, Royal Tours, Tema Resor, and Hasses, plus Ving, Always, and Spies from the Scandinavian Leisure Group.
Revenue services continue with a chartered fleet (painted in a new color scheme) that includes 3 McDonnell Douglas MD-83s; 2 Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1s, including 1 leased from Air Atlanta Icelandic, H. F., and 1 each Boeing 757-225, B-757-2Y0ER, and B-757-236ER.
Destinations visited from Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, Jonkop-ing, and Orebro include Oslo, Larnaca, Hurghada, London, Nice, Banjul, Athens, Chania, Heraklion, Santorini, Kos, Rhodos, Samos, Ovda, Alghero, Rome, Catania, Agadir, Faro, Funchal, Porto Santo, Antalya, Dalaman, Bodrum, Izmir, Arrecife, Malaga, Alicante, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas, Palma, and Tenerife.
Painted in Blue Scandinavia colors, a B-727-2J4A is wet-leased from Sterling European Airways, A. S. of Denmark for the summer. The last TriStar charter is operated on October 31 and the aircraft are returned to their lessors.
While en route from Hurghada, Egypt, to Malmo on November 20, an MD-83 suffers an engine shutdown due to low oil pressure; the aircraft is diverted to Warsaw, Poland. No injuries are reported.
Enplanements for the year total 1,302,800.
Early in 1998, the Fritidsresor group is purchased by Thomson International, Ltd., parent of Britannia Airways, Ltd. The company is renamed Britannia Airways, A. B.
BLUE SKY CARRIER COMPANY, S. A.: Ul. Wojska Polskiego 9/2, Goleniow Airport, Szczecin, PL-70-952, Poland; Phone 48 (91) 883 266; Fax 48 (91) 340 325; Code YM; Year Founded 1992. Blue Sky Carrier Company, S. A. is established at Goleniow Airport at Szczecin on July 6, 1992 by officers of the Polish Steamship Company and Zeglugka Polska, S. A. Zbigniew Jankowski is appointed president and a fleet of three Let 410UVPs is assembled.
Revenue flights commence on July 23, 1993 over domestic routes to Krakow and Wroclaw and international routes to Hamburg and Malmo. Charters are also undertaken to Tanzania.
The workforce stands at 17 in 1994 as Stanislaw Markowski is appointed managing director and a British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31 is acquired.
Flights continue in 1995-2000, during which years the fleet is reduced to the Jetstream 31 and one L-410UVP.
World History
