Balair

Balair was a Swiss airline that became BalairCTA when it merged with CTA in 1993.

Code Information

*ICAO Code: BBB
*IATA Code: BB
*Call Sign: Balair

Company History

In the history of aviation in Switzerland, there are two Balair airlines; the first one existed from 1925 to 1931 and was a progenitor of Swissair. The second Balair started in 1953 as a flying school and pilot training entity. Commercial service began with the acquisition of a Vickers VC.1 Viking. By this time, Swissair had invested heavily in Balair and in 1959, two Douglas DC-4 were acquired from Swissair. During that time, Balair flew charter flights and did so for many years. In 1960, the Douglas DC-6 came into service.

Scheduled service started in 1965 and cities served were: Basel, Geneva, Berne and Frankfurt. The DC-4s were replaced by Fokker F27 Friendship sometime in the late 1960s. The first jet aircraft was the Convair 990 Coronado and then the Douglas DC-9-32 entered service followed by a Douglas DC-8-63 with which it flew to Colombo, Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro. The next expansion came in 1974 when flights to the USA were started and five years later a Douglas DC-10-30 was acquired.

Balair became an all jet airline in 1982 and by 1986 the Airbus A310-325 and the MD-80 were the mainstay of the fleet. By this time Swissair was a majority owner and in 1993 merged Balair with another subsidiary, CTA (Compagnie de Transport Aerien) to form BalairCTA. [Airlines Remembered by BI Hengi, Publisher Midland Publishing]

BalairCTA became Belair after the demise of the Swissair Group.

Historical Fleet Details

*Vickers VC.1 Viking
*Douglas DC-4
*Douglas DC-6A
*Sud SE-210 Caravelle
*Fokker F27 Friendship
*Douglas DC-9-32
*Douglas DC-8-62F and Douglas DC-8-73F
*Douglas DC-10-30
*MD-80, MD-82, MD-83 and MD-87
*Airbus A310-325
*Boeing 757-2G5
*Boeing 767-35H(ER) and 767-3BG(ER)

External links

* [http://rzjets.net/operators/operator.php?opid=212 Historical fleet data]
* [http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/bb.htm Timetable images]
* [http://www.al-airliners.be/b-c/balair/balair.html In memoriam in French]
* [http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/balair.htm Balair DC-6B]

Referentes