Danube Wings Explained

Airline:Danube Wings
Iata:V5
Icao:VPA
Callsign:VIP TAXI
Founded:2000, as Vip Wings, a.s.
Ceased:2013
Headquarters:Bratislava, Slovakia
Bases:M. R. Štefánik Airport

Danube Wings, trading as VIP Wings, a.s., was a Slovakia-based airline[1] that ceased operations in 2013. Danube Wings had operated regional scheduled services on domestic and international routes using ATR 72 aircraft. Its home base was M. R. Štefánik Airport in Bratislava. VIP Wings, a privately owned Slovak company,[2] was the holder of the licences and the AOC.

History

VIP Wings was established on 23 May 2000, and was created from VIP Air, the first private aviation company in Slovakia.

In August 2008 operations started with ATR 72 aircraft, offering regular transport to the general public. On November 13, 2008, the company was assigned the V5 IATA code. On July 15, 2009, Danube Wings became a member of the European Regional Airlines Association.Danube Wings briefly operated a scheduled service from Tatry-Poprad to London/Luton commencing in December 2009. This operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays with an ex-British Airways Boeing 737-400 leased from CSA Czech Airlines. This operation was short-lived, and all London flights had stopped by the end of February 2010. The aircraft was returned to CSA in March 2010.

The company faced serious economical problems and on 20 November 2013 ceased all operations on scheduled flights. According to news reports it ceased operations in December 2013 and laid off all employees.[3]

Business trends

The key trends for Danube Wings were as shown below (although, because it was a private company, few figures were publicly available). Figures as at year ending 31 December:

20082009201020112012
Turnover (€m)
Profits (€m)
Number of employees (at year end)120
Number of passengers (k)4.677.886.974.2122.8
Passenger load factor (%)n/an/an/an/an/a
Number of aircraft (at year end) 34334
Notes/sources[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Destinations

Seasonal services to and from destinations in France were cancelled as of January 2013.[9] On October 19, 2013 Danube Wings announced the immediate cancellation of its last remaining schedule route.[10]

Fleet

The Danube Wings fleet included the following aircraft (at January 2013) in an all-economy class:[11] [12]

Danube Wings fleet
AircraftIn FleetOrdersPassengersNotes
ATR 72-2024align="center"-66One leased to Nextjet for

the Gällivare to Arlanda service

Total4-

Retired fleet

Incidents and accidents

Notes and References

  1. "Contacts ." Danube Wings. Retrieved on 8 December 2010. "Address: DANUBE WINGS, a.s. Ivánska cesta 30/B 821 04 Bratislava Slovakia."
  2. Web site: Danube Wings Airline Profile | CAPA.
  3. Web site: Slovakia's DanubeWings suspends operations indefinitely.
  4. Web site: Danubewings inaugurates the Bologna-Crotone route . 24 June 2009. Bologna Airport . 7 January 2013.
  5. Web site: Danube Wings Fleet List . planespotters.net . 7 January 2013 . 14 August 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140814101347/http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Danube-Wings . dead .
  6. Web site: Danube Wings set for summer flights to Croatia . The Daily.SK . 10 January 2013.
  7. Web site: Danube Wings recorded two-thirds' increase in passengers in 2012 . 8 January 2013 . The Slovak Spectator . 10 January 2013.
  8. Web site: Danube Wings Fleet List . planespotters.net . 10 January 2013 . 14 August 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140814101347/http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Danube-Wings . dead .
  9. Web site: DanubeWings drops French regional routes.
  10. Web site: DanubeWings suspends scheduled operations effective immediately.
  11. http://www.danubewings.com/lris-presentation/detail/airFleet Danube Wings Fleet
  12. http://ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=DBW&al_op=1 Danube Wings Fleet - CH-Aviation.ch