Astraeus (airline)

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Astraeus

IATA 5W	ICAO AEU	Callsign FLYSTAR
Founded		2002
Hubs		London Gatwick Manchester Airport
Fleet size		8 (2006)
Destinations		7
Headquarters		Crawley
Key people		Hugh Parry, John Mahon, Steve Clarke, Peter Cox, Robin Johnson, Phil Rushton
Website: http://www.flyastraeus.com

Astraeus Boeing 737-300 landing at Bristol Airport, Bristol, England.

Astraeus is a charter and scheduled airline based in Crawley, England. Astraeus operates charter services to destinations throughout Europe, the Middle East, North America and North Africa, as well as scheduled services to Africa. Its main bases are Manchester (MAN) and London Gatwick (LGW).

The company holds a United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority Type A Operating Licence, it is permitted to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats ^[1].

1 History
2 Services
3 Fleet
4 Famous Employee
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

The company was named Astraeus Limited on 21 March 2002 and started operations on 6 April 2002. The use of Boeing 737-700 aircraft for extended range operations led to the launch in December 2004 of trans-Atlantic charters between London Gatwick and Deer Lake in Newfoundland, Canada. In 2004 Astraeus opened up routes from London to Aqaba (Jordan) and Simferopol (Ukraine), with flights to the new Mediterranean resort area of El Alamein (Egypt) due to commence in 2005.

In 2005 Astraeus ended its contracts with Air Asia and Iceland Express and started a new contract operating for Flybe from Birmingham and Exeter.^{[citation needed]}

Icelandic investment group, Fons Eignarhaldsfelag, has agreed to acquire a majority 51% stake in Astraeus, reportedly for £5m. The remaining 49% share would be held equally between Astraeus management and Aberdeen Asset Management, which supported the airline launch in 2002. The move would help the Icelandic group support their Iceland Express subsidiary to begin low-fare transatlantic services. The two airlines would continue to operate as separate entities and Astraeus would continue to fly specialist charter services from its London and Manchester bases. It is understood that Astraeus could supply Iceland Express with Boeing 757-200 aircraft to start flights from Iceland to New York and Boston in spring 2007 ^[2].