Adria Airways

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Adria Airways

IATA JP	ICAO ADR	Callsign ADRIA
Founded		1961
Hubs		Brnik Airport
Frequent flyer program		Miles & More
Member lounge		Senator Lounge
Alliance		Star Alliance
Fleet size		15
Destinations		24
Parent company		Adria Airways d.d.
Headquarters		Ljubljana, Slovenia
Key people		Tadej Tufek (President)
Website: http://www.adria-airways.com

Adria Airways is an airline based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It is the national airline of Slovenia and a regional member of the Star Alliance. As of 2005 it operates scheduled and charter flights to 43 destinations in 23 countries, mostly in Europe. Its main base and hub is Brnik Airport, Ljubljana.

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Fleet
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The airline was established and started operations in 1961 as a charter company with a Douglas DC-6 under the name of Adria Aviopromet (Adria Airways). Later, extra DC-6s were bought from KLM. In 1968, the company changed its name to Inex-Adria Airways and introduced its first jet type, the Douglas DC-9. Its name was changed after aligning with Belgrade-based trading group Interexport, but reverted to the original title after that association ended in May 1986.

On October 30, 1975, Inex Adria Aviopromet's DC9-32 with code YU-AJO hit high ground during an ILS approach in fog near Prague-Suchdol in Czechoslovakia. It became the worst aircraft tragedy in Czechoslovakia.

On September 10, 1976, in the worst mid-air disaster to this point, 176 people died when a British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex Adria Douglas DC-9 collided over Zagreb. The collision was attributed to an air traffic control error.

In early 1980s, Inex-Adria introduced its first scheduled flights, purchased McDonnell Douglas MD-80 aircraft and became a member of IATA. Its fleet was mostly employed in charter work throughout Europe. On December 1st 1981 an Inex-Adria DC-9 crashed in the mountain while approaching Campo Dell'Oro Airport in Ajaccio, Corsica killing 178 Slovenian tourists.

International scheduled flights were added, initially to Larnaca, in November 1983. By the late 1980s, and after the name change back to Adria, it purchased several Airbus A320 aircraft. With the break-up of Yugoslavia, Adria Airways attained the role of Slovenia's flag carrier.

In the early 1990s it was an unsuccessful take-over target of the Albert Group led by Evan Hammer.

In March 1996 Adria completed its part-privatisation process. On July 23, 2002, Bombardier Aerospace appointed Adria Airways as the first Bombardier recognized CRJ heavy maintenance facility in Europe. On November 18, 2004, Adria Airways joined the Star Alliance. Adria Airways is a regional member of the alliance.