Air Madrid

Infobox Airline
airline = Air Madrid

logo_size =
fleet_size = 10
destinations =
IATA = NM
ICAO = DRD
callsign = ALADA AIR
parent = Grupo Marsans
company_slogan =
founded = 2003
headquarters = flagicon|Spain Madrid, Spain
key_people = José Luis Carrillo, President
hubs = Madrid Barajas International Airport
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
website = http://www.airmadrid.com/

Air Madrid Líneas Aéreas S.A. was a private airline based in Madrid in Spain operating services to Spain, Tenerife, Mexico, South America, Central America, Europe and Israel. It suspended its operations on 15 December 2006, leaving more than 330,000 passengers stranded in Latin America and Spain. Air Comet has now taken over the Latin American routes.

History

The airline was established in 2003 and in May 2004 started operations with the delivery of two Airbus A330-200 aircraft. It is owned by Celuisma (20%), Hotusa (20%), Herpil (12.5%), Catalonia Hoteles (10%), Quo Viajes (10%), Viajes Eroski (10%) and others. Air Madrid planned to start a new short-haul scheduled arm to provide feeder traffic to its long-haul flights from Madrid. It also had talks to lease five Airbus A320 aircraft for services to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Milan and Paris [Airliner World, September 2005] .

Air Madrid suspended from IATA Operations - 15 December 2006

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that Air Madrid was suspended from IATA operations worldwide on December 15, 2006 following confirmation that the airline had ceased operations.

In September 2006 the company had started experiencing longer than usual delays and several cancellations, particularly on their routes from Madrid, eg flights between Buenos Aires and Madrid usually departed with an average 14 hours delay. Fact|date=February 2007 As reported in El País, most of these delays were triggered by Spanish aviation authorities for safety reasons, refusing to allow certain aircraft to operate due to poor maintenance. After an investigation, the "Dirección General de Aviación Civil" recommended limiting Air Madrid's flights or altogether suspending their licence [ [http://www.elpais.es/articulo/economia/Aviacion/Civil/aconseja/limitar/vuelos/Air/Madrid/retirar/licencia/elpporeco/20061103elpepieco_11/Tes/ El País] ] . Additionally, sources at Toluca, Mexico have stated that Air Madrid’s twice weekly flights regularly arrive and depart several hours late. Due to those delays, Air Madrid had to decide between keeping its certificate or cancelling their flights to Mexico City - Toluca Airport and Milan, and decided cancelling their flights to Toluca and Milan. Fact|date=February 2007

On 16 December 2006 Air Madrid suspended all flights (leaving thousands of people stranded) as a consequence of the Spanish government investigation of its operations and due to constant customer's claims of poor service, that resulted in the cancellation of its permit to operate. It is unknown if operations will resume. Fact|date=February 2007

Air Madrid, blaming the Spanish government, said in a statement that it was giving a list of ticket-holders to the civil aviation authority, which falls under the Development Ministry, for it to “adopt whatever measures it might deem appropriate to compensate them for the damage its conduct has caused.” Air Madrid didn't show any intention of refunding tickets and as expected, the carrier’s press office said it had no information on this. On December 19, 2006 the Spanish Government sent an Air Pullmantur Boeing 747-200 through Panama City, Panama (Tocumen International Airport) to pick up several of the passengers that were stranded in Latin America. According to some pilots, the majority of Air Madrid planes had serious maintenance problems. Fact|date=February 2007

Air Comet has signed a deal with the Spanish government to take over the Latin American routes formerly operated by Air Madrid. The airline will take on 53% of the Air Madrid workforce and will fly back all stranded passengers [Flight International, 23-29 January 2007] .

Destinations

Air Madrid Destinations (all flights canceled until further notice):

*Madrid to Bogotá, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cartagena, Fortaleza, Guayaquil, Lima, London Gatwick, Milan, Panama City, Paris, Rome, Mahon , Palma de Mallorca, Ibiza, Quito, San José, Costa Rica, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Santiago, Tel Aviv and Toluca(Mexico City alternate airport).

*Barcelona to Bogotá, Bucharest, Buenos Aires, Cartagena, Fortaleza, Guayaquil, Milan, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santiago

Fleet

The Air Madrid fleet consisted of the following aircraft (as of November 2006) Fact|date=February 2007:

*1 Airbus A310-300 (to Air Transat as C-GTSX)
*2 Airbus A319-132 (both going to Sichuan Airlines)
*3 Airbus A330-200 (SE-RBG back to Novair)(EC-IYN and EC-IYB going to Air Comet "Viajes Pascual")
*2 Airbus A330-300 (OO-SFW to Brussels Airlines)(the other going to Air Asia)
*1 Airbus A340-300 Going to Air Comet

External links

* [http://www.airmadrid.com Air Madrid official website]
*wayback|http://www.airmadrid.com|Air Madrid official website

References