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| Founded | 1950 | |||
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| Ceased operations | 1996 (merged into Finnair) | |||
| Hubs | Helsinki Airport | |||
| Destinations | ||||
| Parent company | Finnair (since 1963) | |||
| Headquarters | Helsinki, Finland | |||
| Key people | Niilo and Valto Karhumäki (founders) | |||
Karair was an airline from Finland. Initially having offered scheduled passenger flights, the company became a subsidiary of Finnair, mainly operating on holiday charter routes.
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Originally called Karhumäki Airways, the company was founded in 1950 by Veljekset Karhumäki Oy, an aircraft manufacturer owned by Niilo and Valto Karhumäki. Initially operating on domestic routes with a fleet of four Douglas DC-3 and two Convair CV-440 Metropolitan airliners, the first international flight (to Stockholm) took place in 1951, which was followed by holiday flights to Málaga.
In 1957, the airline was rebranded as Kar-Air. A Swedish subsidiary was established, which from 1961 onwards operated a single Douglas DC-6 on chartered flights to Southern Europe. In 1962, Aero O/Y acquired a 27 percent stake in Kar-Air,[1] which was increased to 51 percent over the following years, since Kar-Air had gotten into financial difficulties when its two Metropolitans were damaged in hard landings and had to be taken out of service for a while in 1963. The new majority owner demanded Kar-Air to cease domestic flying, concentrating on charter flights (mainly to the Mediterranean) instead. For this purpose, Aero O/Y handed over to of its own DC-6 aircraft, which Kar-Air also used for multiple stopover round-the-world flights.
The DC-6s remained the backbone of the Kar-Air passenger fleet until 1972, when the jet age was joined with the introduction of the 189-seat Douglas DC-8. One DC-6 was re-configured for cargo transport purposes and stayed with the airline until 1980, when cargo flights were taken over by Finnair (as Aero O/Y was named by then). In the same year, the airline underwent another rebranding, being known as Karair, also styled KarAir henceforth.[1] Over the following years, Karair reduced its fleet, because charter contracts with Finnair had been terminated.
In 1986, two Airbus A300 wide-body airliners joined the Karair fleet,[2] which again were leased from Finnair and deployed on holiday charter flights. Finnair's plans with Karair changed from 1989, when the first of six ATR 72 short-haul turboprop aircraft was added to the fleet, and the A300s in turn left the following year.[2] From then, scheduled domestic passenger flights on behalf of Finnair were operated.
In 1990, Finnair acquired further shares to hold a total of 90 percent of the Karair stake,[1] which was further increased to 97.6 percent in 1993. These period saw financial problems because of the recession of the early 1990s, which led to Finnair announcing a full take-over of Karair in December 1995.[1] Subsequently, the Karair fleet and the airline's operations were merged into Finnair, a move which was completed in September 1996. In 2002, a court deemed the take-over illegal, and Finnair was forced to salvage the remaining Karair stocks.
Between 1950 and 1963 (when Aero O/Y had not yet acquired the majority stake), Kar-Air operated scheduled flights to the following destinations, with further ones accessible on co-operative flights of SAS and Aero O/Y:[3]
Kar-Air was not only operating passenger and cargo services, but until also ore-finding flights using a Lockheed Lodestar (until 1972), a Douglas DC-3 (1972-1980), and after that a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter.
Over the years, Karair operated the following aircraft types for its commercial flights:[1][2]
| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
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| Airbus A300 |
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| ATR 72 |
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| Convair CV-440 |
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| de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter | ||
| Douglas DC-3 |
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| Douglas DC-6 |
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| Douglas DC-8 |
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| Fokker F27 Friendship |
On 5 February 1973, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (registered OH-KOA) crashed near Pudasjärvi in heavy icing conditions during a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Oulu to Kuusamo because of an engine failure. The 15 passengers and three crew survived the accident.[4]
Two aircraft formerly owned by Karair (a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar and one of the oldest surviving Douglas DC-3s) is currently on display at the Finnish Aviation Museum in Vantaa. Another former Karair DC-3 is exhibited at Munich Airport, though painted in the colors of Swissair.
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