Eurofly

Eurofly
IATA ICAO Call sign
GJ EEZ E-FLY
Founded26 May 1989 (1989-05-26)
Ceased operations28 February 2010 (2010-02-28)
(merged with Meridiana to create Meridiana Fly)
Operating bases
Fleet size41
Destinations41 (combined figure for Meridiana and Eurofly)
HeadquartersMilan, Italy
Websiteeurofly.it/EN/index.asp
A Eurofly Douglas DC-9 in the original livery at Dublin Airport.
A Eurofly Airbus A319 seen in 2006.

Eurofly was a privately owned airline based in Milan, Italy.[1] Listed on MTA Stock Exchange and controlled by Meridiana, it was Italy's leading carrier in the leisure flights market and mainly operated international, medium to long haul, point-to-point flights.

The medium-haul activity was centered mainly on operations to Egypt and the Red Sea Riviera, Spain and Greece. The long haul included some of Italians’ preferred tropical destinations like the Maldives and Sri Lanka or Africa. Furthermore, during the summer season, Eurofly operated non-stop scheduled flights to New York City, exploiting the reverse seasonality of if compared to tropical destinations and focusing on incoming traffic to Italy. The company slogan was The Italian [air]way of life.

In 2010, the airline merged with Meridiana to form Meridiana Fly.

History

The airline was established on 26 May 1989 with the aim of selling medium-haul flights to tour operators. Eurofly started its operations on 26 February 1990. It was set up with a 45% shareholding by Alitalia in response to the needs of the flag carrier to develop the leisure travel market. The original shareholding was divided between Alitalia (45%), Olivetti (45%) and San Paolo Finance (10%).[2]

In 2003, Alitalia sold an 80% stake in the airline for $10.8m to Luxembourg based private equity fund Spinnaker, controlled by Italian bank Banco Profilo.[3]

In January 2004, Eurofly was acquired wholly by the Spinnker fund, managed by Sandro Capotosti (CEO and Founder of Banca Prolilo) and Paolo G. Alberoni. The fund listed Eurofly on the Milan Stock Exchange in December 2005.[4] At the end of 2006, Spinnaker sold the residual 29.95% stake in Eurofly to Meridiana and Mr Giovanni Rossi (CEO of Meridiana) took over as CEO of Eurofly.

In January 2008, two capital increases took place and Meridiana participation in Eurofly's capital grew to 46.1%. On 28 February 2010, Meridiana and Eurofly merged to create Italy's second-biggest airline, Meridiana fly.[5]

Destinations

Before eurofly was acquired by Meridiana, the airline had 2 codeshare agreements with Air One and British Airways.[6]

Fleet

The Eurofly fleet consisted of the following aircraft (as of February 2010).

Eurofly Historical Fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired Remark
Airbus A319-115(LR) 1 2006 2007 I-ECJA on lease[7]
Airbus A320-214 16 2001 2010 on lease[8]
Airbus A330-200 5 2002 2010 on lease[7]
Boeing 737-400 1 2000 2000 TC-AFM
leased from Pegasus Airlines[7]
Boeing 767-300ER 3 1998 2003 [9]
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 2 1992 1993 I-RIFP, I-RIZW
leased from Alitalia[7]
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 8 1995 2005 leased or transferred from Alitalia[7]
McDonnell Douglas MD-83 5 1994 2004 on lease[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Contacts." Eurofly. Retrieved on 29 November 2010. "Eurofly S.p.a. Via Ettore Bugatti, 15 20142 Milano."
  2. ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International. 2007-04-03. pp. 78–79.
  3. ^ "Aviation Strategy - The future of Alitalia and its domestic competitors: Air One, Meridiana, Eurofly and Blue Panorama". aviationstrategy.aero. Retrieved 2023-07-06.
  4. ^ "Tutte le Ipo per Piazza Affari: Chiude Guala Closures, pronte Safilo e Eurotech". 16 November 2005.
  5. ^ Derber2009-11-20T14:17:00+00:00, Alex. "Meridiana-Eurofly tie-up creates new carrier Meridiana Fly". Flight Global. Retrieved 2023-07-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ "voli diretti eurofly - le vacanze decollano" (in Italian). 2007-02-19. Archived from the original on 2007-02-19. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Eurofly Fleet". Planespotters. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  8. ^ "Airbus A320 Eurofly". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  9. ^ "Boeing 767 Eurofly". Airfleets.net. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
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