Danube Wings, trading as VIP Wings, a.s., was a

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

-based airline that ceased operations in 2013. Danube Wings had operated regional scheduled services on domestic and international routes using

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed ...

aircraft. Its home base was M. R. Štefánik Airport in Bratislava. VIP Wings, a privately owned Slovak company, was the holder of the licences and the

AOC Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of ...

History

VIP Wings was established on 23 May 2000, and was created from VIP Air, the first private aviation company in Slovakia. In August 2008 operations started with ATR 72 aircraft, offering regular transport to the general public. On November 13, 2008, the company was assigned the V5 IATA code. On July 15, 2009, Danube Wings became a member of the

European Regional Airlines Association The European Regions Airline Association is a trade association of European regional airlines and associated businesses. It was founded as the European Regional Airlines Association in 1980, by a small number of what were then known as ''commuter ...

. The company faced serious economical problems and on 20 November 2013 ceased all operations on scheduled flights. According to news reports it ceased operations in December 2013 and laid off all employees.

Business trends

The key trends for Danube Wings were as shown below (although, because it was a private company, few figures were publicly available). Figures as at year ending 31 December:

Destinations

Seasonal services to and from destinations in France were cancelled as of January 2013. On October 19, 2013 Danube Wings announced the immediate cancellation of its last remaining schedule route.

Fleet

The Danube Wings fleet included the following aircraft (at January 2013) in an all-economy class:Danube Wings Fleet - CH-Aviation.ch

Retired fleet

Boeing 737-400 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Februa ...

(leased from

Czech Airlines Czech Airlines j.s.c. (abbreviation: ČSA, cz, České Aerolinie, a.s.) is the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Its head office is located in the Vokovice area of Prague's 6th district and its hub is Václav Havel Airport Prague. The compa ...

)

Incidents and accidents

*On 2 January 2010, Danube Wings Flight 8230, a

, was involved in an incident when Slovak Police hid 8 explosives in passengers' luggage to test the airport's security systems. In error, one of the explosives was not removed afterwards, and was later flown to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, causing an international incident.

References

External links

{{Airlines of Slovakia Defunct airlines of Slovakia Airlines established in 2008 Airlines disestablished in 2013 Slovakian companies established in 2008