Air Columbus
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Air Columbus was founded in Portugal in 1989 to operate Inclusive Tour charter flights from Funchal and Faro to Northern European destinations. Starting services with one Boeing 727 that had undergone the Valsan re-engining programme for improved field performance and fuel economy the inaugural flight took place on 5th October 1989 from Faro to London's Gatwick airport on behalf of the British flight only specialist Avro plc.
The performance of the aircraft was such as to enable direct services to be operated from the airport at Funchal to the UK and also transatlantic operations from Terceira (Azores) to Montreal and Providence. A second Boeing 727 was added to the fleet in March 1990 and the first of three Boeing 737-300s were leased from Norway Airlines in early 1992.
At its peak Air Columbus was operating from Faro, Funchal, Lisbon and Porto to destinations in Spain (incl Canaries), France, Germany, the UK, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the USA and Canada and provided a level of inflight service not seen before (or since) on Portuguese charter carriers.
The last year of its existence was marked by a marked downturn in the calibre of sales staff and increasing levels of management inefficiency. This, combined with the terminal problems of some of its clients and of one of its shareholders (Sterling Airways) led eventually to its closure in late 1994.
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