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11th June 2003
Air Atlanta Icelandic - The Airlines' Airline There is a fair chance that you have flown Air Atlanta Icelandic once - without even noticing it. The Iceland-based company is the world's largest ACMI leasing firm for passenger airliners with many well known airlines as its customers. A report by Michael Meier.
Air Atlanta Icelandic was founded in February 1986 by Captain Arngrimur Johannsson and his wife Thora Gudmundsdottir in Iceland. By the same year, the company signed its first contract to wet lease a Boeing 707-320 to Caribbean Airways for operations between London and Barbados. After this first contract, it didn't take long until a further customer was found. In 1988, Air Atlanta entered a an agreement with a Finnish Tour operator. Also in the same year, the company operated the first hajj flights for Air Afrique. Since then, the hajj operations have become a growing market for Air Atlanta. Today, the airline is flying thousands of pilgrims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia during the hajj season, mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia, and various African countries. The hajj market has quite a large potential. Each year, about 2 million muslims from more than 70 countries are travelling to the holy city of Mecca each year, all of them within six days. The pilgrimage is a very important part of the frameworks of Islamic life. But Air Atlanta has also seen growth beside the hajj operations. Within the years 1989 and 1990 the airline begun to lease a Boeing 737-200C freighter first to Finnair and later to Lufthansa for scheduled cargo flights within Europe. The year 1991 marked another milestone in the history, when the first Lockheed Tristar L1011 entered the fleet of the airline. It was the first widebody aircraft and it offered many new opportunities. Sudan Airways of Khartoum was the first customer to operate the L1011, for the period of four months. Soon after that, in April 1992, Air Atlanta used the L1011 to start its first passenger flights out of its homebase Iceland.
Beside the L1011, the airline introduced another widebody type in its fleet when the first Boeing 747 was added in 1993. The first mission for this new plane was a project for Saudi Arabian Airlines, who leased three Boeing 747-200 from Air Atlanta Icelandic during the hajj season of this year. During the next years, Air Atlanta continued to grow, by getting new contracts and adding new planes to the fleet. That included a remarkable expansion in the United Kingdom, where contracts with major charter airlines such as Britannia, Monarch and Caledonian were signed. By the same time, another customer was found on the European continent. Iberia leased two Boeing 747-200s for scheduled routes from Madrid to Cuba, as well as to other destinations. Also in the late 90s, another major airline went to Air Atlanta to lease some extra capacity. British Airways signed a contract for one Boeing 737-300 aircraft, which was flown for the British carrier during the summer of 1998. The growth went on for some more years, when the airline added more planes to the fleet, including three Boeing 747-300s (TF-ATI, TF-ATJ, TF-ATH). These former VARIG airliners were mainly used for Iberia, two of them are still with the Spanish Airline, in a dry lease contact. Beside the 747-300, the airline also introduced the first four Boeing 767 aircraft. Today, the airline has eight Boeing 767s in its fleet, of which three have been reregistered in the United Kingdom.
As we all know, the year 2001 brought new challenges to the aviation industry, also to Air Atlanta. The growth suddenly came to a stop after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Due to the breakdown of passenger numbers, most of the airlines had too much capacity and returned leased aircraft to lessors in order to cut costs. Iberia for example chanceled its ACMI contracts for two Boeing 747-.200s and just keept three 747-200s on dry lease terms. It's truly remarkable that Air Atlanta handled the situation very professional and without much cutbacks. Only eight people lost their jobs due to the terror attacks. After the times of cutbacks, the business started to recover again and Air Atlanta was able to win some important contracts. In 2002, the airline entered a lot of new leasing deals. Especially the Boeing 767 fleet became quite popular then. Customers for the 767-200s and 767-300s include the British carrier Excel Airways, Nigeria Airways, Southern Winds of Argentina, Universal of Guyana, Aeromar and Dublin based Aviajet. But the 747 fleet has not been less popular. In the early summer of 2002, a contract with Virgin Atlantic was signed. Initially, Air Atlanta flew six rotations a week using a Boeing 747-200 (TF-ATN) in full Virgin colours. The contract was later extended and Air Atlanta is still operating flights for Virgin as of today, with two 747-200s (TF-ATW, TF-ATN). Mainly to fly British tourists on the Manchester - Orlando route. Another new customer for the Boeing 747-200F was Malaysian Airlines, who entered an agreement in October 2002. Freighter operations became particularly important to Air Atlanta during the last years. In March 2002, the airline took delivery four Boeing 747-200F freighters. The total 747 freighter fleet consists of six airframes now. The airline will add one more 747 freighter to the fleet. Furthermore, it is planned to add another four freighters per year, to operate 15-17 freighters by 2006.
Today, the fleet consists of three Boeing 757-200, eight Boeing 767 and 16 Boeing 747, of which one will soon leave the fleet. Two of them are currently stored in Marana, but it is planned to get them back in service again within the next time. The fleet mix is quite complex, with just a few pieces of each type. And as all the airplanes have been bought second-hand, there are a lot of differences between every single airframes. Furthermore, the planes are based at airports all around the world. Due to these circumstances, it's a hard task to maintain the fleet. But don't worry, everything is under control at Air Atlanta. Most of the work is outsourced. Heavy maintenance is done by TAECO in Xiamen, by HAECO at Beijing and sometimes at GAMCO in Abu Dhabi. Regular line maintenance and A-Checks are performed by Air Atlanta engineers and occasionally Cargolux (A-4 checks). Air Atlanta is a JAR 145 & JAR 147 approved company and all technical planning and training is done inhouse at the home base in Iceland. Air Atlanta has been a JAR-OPS 1 and FCL 1 operator right from the start of the programs by JAA.
A line maintenance station has been established in Manston, UK, where light maintenance can be performed. Air Atlanta Icelandic did also set up a centralised warehouse facility for its stock of spare parts in 1999 at the former military airport, which is the location of the company's largest permanent facility outside of Iceland. But there is more in the UK. Apart from Manston, the airline has a fully-owned subsidiary, called Air Atlanta Europe, based in London Gatwick. The new company will operate flights out of London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow for local customers. So far, three Boeing 767 aircraft, operated for charter operator Excel Airways, have been reregistered in the UK (G-BNYS, G-BOPB, G- SATR). Three Boeing 747-200, mainly for Virgin Atlantic, will follow them into the UK register during the summer. And just recently, at the 2nd June 2003, the UK Civil Aviation Authority granted Air Atlanta Europe an Air Operator's Certificate and an Operating Licence, making it a "real" UK airline. Air Atlanta is a very international company, with facilities in the United Kingdom and bases all over the world, like Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Miami, Paris or Santo Domingo. Despite the global reach, the company is truly Icelandic. The majority of shares are still owned by investors from Iceland, while a 20% stake has been sold to an Icelandic bank in 1999.
The airline has always proved to be innovative and flexible. That's how they became the market leader in ACMI leasing for passenger aircraft. The business might be based in a small niche market, but Air Atlanta is performing very well in it. As mentioned above, a lot of growth will come from an expansion in the air cargo market during the next years. Air Atlanta is planning to operate 15-17 freighters by 2006, with a similar number of widebody passenger jets. Air Atlanta Icelandic is a very dynamic company, with changes every day. When I published this article, I had the current details about every single aircraft in the fleet. But I'm sure there have already been a lot of changes in the meantime. As Mr. Erling Aspelund, Manager Corporate Communications remarks: "The only thing constant at Air Atlanta is change." Michael Meier
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Pictures Copyright: Air Atlanta Icelandic, Celway Group | |
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The
largest company for ACMI leases of passenger aircraft? Well, let's
explain the ACMI terms first. That means leasing an aircraft with
everything in a complete package. Under such a contract, Air Atlanta
will provide the aircraft including crew, maintenance and insurance.
All a customer has to pay for are taxes (landing, ATC, etc.) and
fuel costs. And of course, he has to bring the passengers to fill
the seats in the plane. An ACMI leasing contract is quite flexible,
especially for the customer, who can lease a plane for a certain
time, from a few hours to a few years. And there is no need to train
crews and pilots on the specific aircraft, the leasing company will
bring its own crew to operate the plane. After this basics, it's
now time to have a look to the history of Air Atlanta.
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