European Aviation Air Charter

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European Aviation Air Charter

IATA E7	ICAO EAF	Callsign EUROCHARTER
Founded		1989 (as European Aviation)
Hubs		Bournemouth Airport
Frequent flyer program		None
Fleet size		6
Destinations		N/A
Parent company		European Aviation
Headquarters		Bournemouth
Key people
Website: http://www.european.aero

European Aviation Air Charter is an airline based in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. It operates ad hoc passenger and cargo charter services from airports in the UK and other parts of Europe, as well as a leasing service to airlines. Is main base is Bournemouth International Airport.

European Aviation Air Charter Limited holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, it is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.[1]

[edit] History

European Aviation Air Charter began in 1989, as European Aviation. Paul Stoddart, the boss of European Aviation Air Charter, saw a gap in the market for an ad-hoc charter airline. The equipment the airline used at first were rather old BAC-111 jets, which had been first built during the 1960s. The aircraft were flown over from Australia, as their previous owner was the Royal Australian Air Force.

European Aviation was initially based in the building where the British Aircraft Corporation used to make aircraft such as the Viscount and, coincidentally, the BAC-111s that the airline was operating. European Air Charter has flown from Bournemouth-Hum International Airport since its beginning, making the airport a hub for the airline.

The airline was profitable, so the company expanded its operation into other areas such as flight crew training, maintenance for other operators and leasing and selling aircraft.

In 1993, the company directors took the decision of changing European Aviation's name to European Aviation Air Charter, or EAC for short. That same year, twenty other BAC-111s were bought from British airline industry giant British Airways.

This move was made so that the airline could include tour groups among its charter clients. By then the airline also operated the far newer Airbus A300 jets as well as examples of the American Boeing 737 type. Many of European's Boeing 737s used to fly for the former national airline of Belgium, Sabena, an airline that disappeared after the September 11, 2001 attacks. By 1997 European had acquired some Boeing 727 airliners as well.

European Air Charter asked for permission to land at JFK International Airport in New York, Chicago and other US and Canadian destinations in 2001. Due to the volume of passengers the airline projected to transport on each flight to North America, Boeing 747s were bought, once again from British Airways. A total of six former British Airways aircraft of that type entered service with the airline after the permits were granted.

Although black and silver became prevalent colors in the airline's livery after operating with a standard (for European Aviation) red and white livery, the airline reminded some of Braniff because, after the 747s arrived, the airline's livery also featured lines that crossed both their airplanes' fuselages and engines. The colors used for that line included pink, blue, yellow, red and others.

European Air Charter has formed an association with Palmair, which used to fly over passengers to Bournemouth so they could board the European Air Charter jets to North America.

However, in 2004, EAC started losing money. Paul Stoddart resumed control of EAC and went about cost cutting, this involved selling or scrapping the Boeing 747s, selling some Boeing 737-200s and disposing of the rest of the fleet.

Currently, EAC has 3 Boeing 737-200s, mainly used for the Palmair services.

[edit] Fleet

The European Aviation Air Charter fleet consists of the following aircraft (at June 2006):

8 Boeing 737-200 - all of which are for sale.
- B737-200 - N749AP
- B737 200 - N752AP
- B737-229 - G-CEAC
- B737-229 - G-CEAE
- B737-229 - G-CEAF
- B737-229 - G-CEAH
- B737-229 - G-CEAJ
- B737-2E7 - G-FIGP