Flagcarrier

Flag Carrier (English: banner or flag carrier ) is a term used in civil commercial aviation and referred to an airline that has a recognizable to third parties affinity to a State under different possible conditions.

Airline owned by a State

In the traditional sense of those airlines are called flag carriers which are majority owned by a State. Typical here is often a monopoly position in the domestic market. Partial take such flag carrier at the same time state functions such as the transport of state officials on the occasion of state visits come true. Historically, the term particular public airlines in Europe such as Air France, British Airways or Lufthansa German needed. Both the increasing privatization and the liberalization in air transport and Open Skies Agreement learns the term, at least in Europe increasingly a change of meaning (see below).

Airline with a State License

In particular, in the U.S. with flag carrier airlines designated all who hold a license from the Civil Aviation Authority of the respective State. For further conditions are usually associated, must typically about the company's headquarters are located in this State and the Company shall not be majority foreign ownership. This approach is similar to that of a ship's registry and is especially important if only as flag carrier funded for by the public sector flights may be used as the Fly America Act. The former Pan American was often referred to as flag carrier due to its numerous exclusive contracts with the U.S. government.

Marketing

Because of the historically conditioned Prestigeträchtigkeit the legally protected term flag carrier is also used by airlines that are not flag carrier in the traditional sense, but an exclusive state reference suggest in their marketing strategy. The airline Virgin Atlantic as indicated in response to the removal of the Union Jack from the tails of British Airways machines as "Britain 's Flag Carrier".

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