AIR NOSTRUM

'Air Nostrum', also known as 'Iberia Regional', is a regional airline based in Valencia, Spain, operating as an Iberia regional partner and an affiliate member of the oneworld airline alliance. It operates an extensive network of 91 domestic and international routes to 51 destinations, as well as charter flights. Its main base is Valencia Airport, with hubs at Barcelona International Airport and Madrid Barajas International Airport^[2].

Contents

Code Data

History

Destinations

Services

Incidents and accidents

Fleet

External links

References

Code Data

★ IATA Code: 'YW'

★ ICAO Code: 'ANE'

★ Callsign: Air Nostrum ^[3]

History

The airline was established in 1994 and started operations in December 1994. It was founded as Lineas Aereas del Mediterraneo/Air Nostrum in Valencia. In May 1997 Air Nostrum signed an agreement with Iberia to become an Iberia franchise. It acquired Iberia subsidiary Binter Mediterraneo and absorbed its operations. Following Iberia's merger with Aviaco in 1999 additional domestic and international services were taken over by Air Nostrum. It acquired Dutch airline Denim Air in 1999, but disposed of any interest in the company in 2002. Air Nostrum is owned by Nefinsa (74.8%), Caja Duero (22.2%) and Air Nostrum management (3%) and has 2,040 employees (at March 2007).

Destinations

Air Nostrum operates the following services (at January 2006):

★ Domestic scheduled destinations: Albacete, Alicante, Almería, Asturias, Badajoz, Barcelona, Bilbao, Granada, Ibiza, La Coruña, Las Palmas, León, Logroño, Madrid, Málaga, Melilla, Menorca, Murcia, Palma de Mallorca, Pamplona, Reus, San Sebastian, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Tenerife, Valencia, Valladolid, Vigo, Vitoria and Zaragoza.

★ International scheduled destinations: Amsterdam, Bologna, Bordeaux, Brussels, Casablanca, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hanover, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Marseille, Milan, Nantes,Naples, Nice, Paris, Porto, Strasbourg, Tanger, Toulouse, Turin and Zurich.

Services

Air Nostrum offers a comprehensive meal service on all scheduled flights. There is only the single cabin on all flights, called "Regional Business Class" where economy passengers are treated to the high levels of comfort and service normally found in other airline's Business Class. Service quality is reflected in the use of table linen instead of trays, stainless steel cutlery in place of plastic knives and forks, glassware and china cups in place of plastic cups and of course, a hot towel service.

Incidents and accidents

On 23 January 2007 Air Nostrum flight IB 8041 from Pamplona to Barcelona was forced to make an emergency landing at El Prat after reporting problems with the front undercarriage on the plane, a Bombardier Dash 8 Q300. The plane had to make an emergency landing, but fortunately nobody was hurt. The following day flight IB 8665 from Valladolid also had to make an emergency landing at the same airport due again to problems with the plane's undercarriage. Two of the forty passengers sustained minor injuries while disembarking from the plane, a Bombardier CRJ-200ER.

Fleet

CRJ 200ER

The Air Nostrum fleet includes the following aircraft (at March 2007) :

★ 5 ATR 72-500

★ 1 BAe 146-200

★ 35 Bombardier CRJ-200ER

★ 11 Bombardier CRJ-900 (plus 9 on order)

★ 11 Bombardier Dash 8 Q300
Air Nostrum average fleet age is 4.5 years (at July 2006)^[4].

External links

★ Air Nostrum

★ Air Nostrum Fleet

References

1. [1]
2. Directory: World Airlines
3. Airline Codes
4. Air Nostrum Fleet Age