Star Air (Maersk Air)
Cologne / Bonn
Star Air is a Danish cargo airline based in Dragør and a subsidiary of AP Møller - Mærsk Logistics Group.
History
The Company was incorporated on September 1, 1987 by the AP Møller Line, which took over a hangar and parts of the organization of the Alk -Air and three Fokker F27 -600 leased. From the beginning, rendered Star Air transportation services for businesses and for other airlines, chartered aircraft with crew for cargo and passenger flights. Soon, the airline larger, oriented in the execution of air cargo companies such as TNT, FedEx and UPS turned on. Some years flew Star Air exclusively with the converted as freighter aircraft Fokker F- 27th A dedicated freight network, the company built not on, but rather focused on the marketing of cargo capacity.
In 1993 charter flights with F-27 freighters were only difficult to market, so that you decided a deconstruction of this fleet. The operational and administrative areas of the company were eventually taken over by Maersk Air. Star Air took in consequence also the passenger flying again. At the same time, the U.S. company UPS aimed at cooperation with a European cargo airline to expand its air rights within the European Union. The contract between the candidates initially did not get Star Air but the Danish Sterling Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy, however, shortly before conclusion of the cooperation with UPS. So finally came Star Air to the course, which started the European air traffic for the U.S. companies with leased aircraft from UPS. On October 22, 1993 Star Air UPS graduated with a contract for the operation of first two Boeing 727, which has already taken ten days later. The first two routes led from Cologne / Bonn Zaragoza to Porto or via Bergamo to Rome.
When the last Fokker F-27 was ausgeflottet in 1996, Star Air flew from now exclusively on behalf of UPS. After July 2004 all Boeing 727 were returned, she flew with a fleet of four Boeing 757 on four routes for UPS.
2003 joined Star Air and UPS from an agreement on a further ten years of collaboration. From 2005, the airline managed by and by eleven Boeing 767 in the freighter variant and gave all Boeing 757 back to UPS.
Following the sale of Maersk Air by AP Møller- Mærsk Star Air remained as a separate company within the Maersk group of companies, the planes carry the signature MAERSK on the vertical stabilizer. For now, the company operates approximately 200 employees, most of them in Cologne, the European hub of UPS.
Fleet
As of March 2014, the fleet of Star Air consists of twelve aircraft: