Iberia (airline)Iberia (iˈβeɾja), legally incorporated as Iberia Líneas Aéreas de España, S.A. Operadora, Sociedad Unipersonal, is the flag carrier of Spain. Founded in 1927 and based in Madrid, it operates an international network of services from its main base of Madrid–Barajas Airport. Iberia, with Iberia Regional (operated by an independent carrier Air Nostrum) and with Iberia Express, is a part of International Airlines Group. In addition to transporting passengers and freight, Iberia Group carries out related activities, such as aircraft maintenance, handling in airports, IT systems and in-flight catering.
Malaysia AirlinesMalaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB; Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad), formerly known as Malaysian Airline System (MAS; Sistem Penerbangan Malaysia), and branded as Malaysia Airlines, is the flag carrier of Malaysia and a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. (The MAS initials are still being kept by subsidiaries MASkargo and MASwings.) The company headquarters are at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. In August 2014, the Malaysian government's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional—which then owned 69.
AirlineAn airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and/or freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which they both offer and operate the same flight. Generally, airline companies are recognized with an air operating certificate or license issued by a governmental aviation body. Airlines may be scheduled or charter operators. The first airline was the German airship company DELAG, founded on November 16, 1909.
LufthansaDeutsche Lufthansa AG (ˌdɔʏtʃə ˈlʊfthanzaː ʔaːˈɡeː), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, serves as the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it stands as the second-largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried, after the ultra low-cost carrier Ryanair. Lufthansa is also one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, which is the world's largest airline alliance, formed in 1997.
Air New ZealandAir New Zealand Limited (Araraurangi Aotearoa) is the flag carrier airline of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 30 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily around and within the Pacific Rim. The airline has been a member of the Star Alliance since 1999. Air New Zealand succeeded Tasman Empire Airways Limited on 1 April 1965. The airline served only international routes until 1978, when the government merged it and the domestic New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC) into a single airline under the Air New Zealand name.
KLMKLM Royal Dutch Airlines, legally Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (ˈkoːnɪŋklɪkə ˈlʏxtvaːrt ˈmaːtsxɑpɛi̯ ˌɛnˈveː, Royal Aviation Company Plc.), is the flag carrier of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM group and a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Founded in 1919, KLM is the oldest operating airline in the world, and has 35,488 employees with a fleet of 110 (excluding subsidiaries) .
British AirwaysBritish Airways (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers carried, behind easyJet. In January 2011 BA merged with Iberia, creating the International Airlines Group (IAG), a holding company registered in Madrid, Spain. IAG is the world's third-largest airline group in terms of annual revenue and the second-largest in Europe.
Freedoms of the airThe freedoms of the air, also called five freedoms of air transport, are a set of commercial aviation rights granting a country's airlines the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace. They were formulated as a result of disagreements over the extent of aviation liberalisation in the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944, known as the Chicago Convention. The United States had called for a standardized set of separate air rights to be negotiated between states, but most other countries were concerned that the size of the U.
Pan AmPan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for much of the 20th century. It was the first airline to fly worldwide and pioneered numerous innovations of the modern airline industry, such as jumbo jets and computerized reservation systems.
AircalinSociété Aircalin, also known as Air Calédonie International, is the flag carrier of the French collectivity of New Caledonia, with its headquarters in Nouméa. It operates scheduled services from its main base at La Tontouta International Airport to destinations across Oceania and Asia, such as Japan and Singapore, and additionally operates domestic services in Wallis and Futuna. The airline is 99% owned by the Government of New Caledonia, with the remaining 1% held by minority owners, including the airline's employees.