Marabu, styled as ''marabu'' and legally incorporated as ''Marabu Airlines
OÜ'', is an
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
leisure airline headquartered in
Tallinn, with operations based at
Hamburg Airport and
Munich Airport in
Germany. Ticket sales are handled by
Condor, who describes the carrier as a ''partner airline''.
History
On 13 December 2022, Attestor Capital, the owner of a 51% stake in German
leisure airline Condor, announced the incorporation of an Estonia-registered carrier, with operations starting in the 2023 summer season, utilising
Airbus A320neo
The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus.
The A320neo family (''neo'' for "new engine option") is based on the previous A319, A320 and A321 ( enhanced variant), which was then ren ...
aircraft chartered from
Nordica. The carrier is fully owned by German-based special purpose vehicle ''CD Ferienflug Hessen Holding GmbH''.
Nordic Aviation Group
Nordica, legally incorporated as ''Nordic Aviation Group AS'', is the state-owned Estonian flag carrier headquartered in Tallinn, and based at Tallinn Airport. It operates scheduled flights as well as on wetlease contracts on behalf of other a ...
, the parent company of
Nordica, had previously disclosed their role in setting up an
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
AOC for an unidentified customer, to start operations in Spring 2023. On 6 April 2023,
Xfly, part of
Nordic Aviation Group
Nordica, legally incorporated as ''Nordic Aviation Group AS'', is the state-owned Estonian flag carrier headquartered in Tallinn, and based at Tallinn Airport. It operates scheduled flights as well as on wetlease contracts on behalf of other a ...
, published a video on their
YouTube channel announcing that this process had been completed.
On 15 April 2023, Marabu's first aircraft, registered ES-MBU, flew the first service from
Munich to
Palma de Mallorca
Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situate ...
under the callsign MBU6508.
Shortly after its inauguration, Marabu faced media attention and severe criticism due to several major delays, flight cancellations and supposedly insufficient communication to customers. The airline stated technical issues with leased aircraft and missing cabin crew as a cause and planned to phase-in additional third-party operators to stabilize the schedule. Trying to stabilize its operations, Marabu cancelled their routes from both Hamburg and Munich to Tallinn before they even started and cut the flights from Hamburg to Rome after just few flights.
Destinations
The carrier serves around 20 holiday destinations in
Croatia,
Egypt,
Greece,
Italy,
Portugal and
Spain. It was also announced that a larger range of destinations in Germany would be served.
Fleet
As of February 2024, the Marabu fleet consists of the following aircraft:
References
External links
*
{{Airlines of Estonia
Airlines of Estonia
Airlines established in 2022
Companies based in Tallinn
Estonian brands