Aer Turas
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Aer Turas Teoranta was an Irish airline and later a freight operator based in Dublin, Ireland from 1962 until May 2003.
[edit] History
Aer Turas started operations in 1962 as an air taxi service from Ireland to the UK with a single de Havilland Dragon Rapide. They soon began to focus on freight rather than passenger operations and were quite successful for many years. In the 1980s Aer Lingus acquired a majority shareholding in Aer Turas. However a decade later, soaring insurance costs, increased competition and the turbulence following September 11th terrorist attacks in the USA all contributed to an overall operating loss and ultimately resulted in the company going into receivership.
[edit] Fleet
They began with a single de Havilland Dragon Rapide. Soon they expanded the fleet with Douglas DC3, DC4, DC7,DC8-63, Bristol 170 and Canadair CL44 aircraft. Of the two remaining DC8 aircraft, EI-CGO was sold to First International Airlines and EI-BNA was to be broken up for spares.