Air Plus Comet
Encyclopedia
Air Comet was an airline
based in Madrid
, Spain
. It operated scheduled long-haul services from Madrid to 13 destinations in Central and South America
, as well as services in Europe
. Its main base was Terminal 1 at Madrid Barajas Airport. The airline worked together with well-known airlines such as AeroSur in a variety of codeshare agreements.
It mainly operated long-haul charter services from Madrid and Palma de Mallorca
to destinations in America and the Caribbean
. It relaunched as a full service carrier under the Air Comet name in January 2007. It was wholly owned by Grupo Marsans.
In January 2007, Air Comet took over some of the now defunct Air Madrid
airline's Latin American routes.
On 21 December 2009, a High Court in London emitted a verdict favouring the German bank HSH Nordbank, which had sued Air Comet for not meeting the terms of payment for their leased aircraft. Therefore, the airline became legally able to neither operate their four A330-200's nor sell any fare tickets, so Air Comet's Direction had to announce the airline was ceasing its operations.
Europe
North America
South America
By the time of ceasing operations the Air Comet fleet consisted of the following aircraft (as of 21 December 2009) http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Air-Comet:
As of 19 February 2009, the average age of the Air Comet fleet was 12.2 years (http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/Air%20Comet.htm).
Airline
An airline provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit...
based in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. It operated scheduled long-haul services from Madrid to 13 destinations in Central and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, as well as services in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Its main base was Terminal 1 at Madrid Barajas Airport. The airline worked together with well-known airlines such as AeroSur in a variety of codeshare agreements.
History
The airline was established in 23 December 1996 as Air Plus Comet and started operations in 1 March 1997, with base at Madrid Barajas Airport. On 11 December 1996 Oasis airline ceased operations and their only aircraft, an Airbus A310, and a significant part of their staff (pilots, ground and office personnel, etc.) became the foundation of Air Plus Comet. In the initial hurry just after the takeover, and not having decided any commercial name for the airline yet, the ICAO code for the company was filled in simply as MPD, which stands for the last names of their three main directives (Mata, Pascual and Díaz).It mainly operated long-haul charter services from Madrid and Palma de Mallorca
Palma de Mallorca
Palma is the major city and port on the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. The names Ciutat de Mallorca and Ciutat were used before the War of the Spanish Succession and are still used by people in Majorca. However, the official name...
to destinations in America and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. It relaunched as a full service carrier under the Air Comet name in January 2007. It was wholly owned by Grupo Marsans.
In January 2007, Air Comet took over some of the now defunct Air Madrid
Air Madrid
Air Madrid Líneas Aéreas S.A. was an airline headquartered in Alcobendas, Community of Madrid, 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...
airline's Latin American routes.
Financial troubles and bankruptcy
On 11 February 2009, Air Comet has been suspended from IATA Clearing House due to non-payment of January balance.http://www.hispanidad.com/imagenes/Aircomet-IATA.pdfOn 21 December 2009, a High Court in London emitted a verdict favouring the German bank HSH Nordbank, which had sued Air Comet for not meeting the terms of payment for their leased aircraft. Therefore, the airline became legally able to neither operate their four A330-200's nor sell any fare tickets, so Air Comet's Direction had to announce the airline was ceasing its operations.
Destinations
Air Comet flew to the following destinations http://www.aircomet.com/A7eAracs/preSearchSchedules.do (as of December 2009):Europe
- MadridMadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
- Madrid Barajas Airport Main Hub
North America
- HavanaHavanaHavana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
- José Martí International AirportJosé Martí International AirportJosé Martí International Airport , sometimes known by its former name Rancho-Boyeros Airport, is located southwest of Havana, Cuba, and is a hub for Cubana de Aviación, Aerogaviota and Aero Caribbean, and former Latin American hub for Aeroflot Soviet Airlines...
South America
- BogotáBogotáBogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
- El Dorado International AirportEl Dorado International AirportEl Dorado International Airport is an international airport located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the largest Latin America airport in terms of cargo movements with 593,946 tons and the third in terms of passenger traffic, only behind São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport and Mexico City's... - Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
- Ministro Pistarini International AirportMinistro Pistarini International AirportMinistro Pistarini International Airport , more commonly known as Ezeiza International Airport owing to its location within the Ezeiza Partido in the Greater Buenos Aires, is an international airport located south-southwest of Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina... - GuayaquilGuayaquilGuayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...
- José Joaquín de Olmedo International AirportJosé Joaquín de Olmedo International AirportJosé Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport is an airport serving Guayaquil, a city in the province of Guayas in Ecuador. The airport was named after José Joaquín de Olmedo, a notable Ecuadorian poet, first mayor of the city of Guayaquil and former president of Ecuador. It was formerly known as... - LimaLimaLima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
- Jorge Chávez International AirportJorge Chávez International AirportJorge Chávez International Airport , known as Aeropuerto Internacional Jorge Chávez in Spanish, is Peru's main international and domestic airport. It is located in Callao, 11 kilometers from the Historic Centre of Lima and 17 km from Miraflores. Callao is the port city now fully... - QuitoQuitoSan Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...
- Mariscal Sucre International AirportMariscal Sucre International AirportMariscal Sucre International Airport is the international airport serving Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. It is named after Venezuelan born Antonio José de Sucre, known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" , a hero of Ecuadorian and Latin American independence... - Santa Cruz de la SierraSanta Cruz de la SierraSanta Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
- Viru Viru International AirportViru Viru International AirportViru Viru International Airport is an aviation facility located in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.The idea to build a new, modern airport in Santa Cruz was conceived in 1976, in view of the obsolence of the old airport known as El Trompillo. Soon after, construction of the airport began...
Fleet
| Aircraft | Total | Passengers | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F | C | Y | Total | |||
| Airbus A320-211 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 156 | 168 | |
| Airbus A330-200 | 4 | 24 | 0 | 259 | 286 | One of them ended in Batavia Air Batavia Air Batavia Air is an airline based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It operates domestic flights to around 30 destinations and international services to Singapore, China and Malaysia. Its main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta... |
| Airbus A340-300 | 2 | 6 30 |
42 28 |
204 227 |
252 255 |
|
As of 19 February 2009, the average age of the Air Comet fleet was 12.2 years (http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/Air%20Comet.htm).