economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

, a virtual airline is an

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

that has

outsource Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

d as many possible operational and business functions as it can, but still maintains effective control of its core business. Such an airline focuses on operating a network of air services, and outsourcing non-core activities to other organizations. Contracting out services within the aviation industry has reportedly become so common that many carriers could be classed as having features of a virtual airline, although it is arguable whether any current carriers meet a strict definition of the term. The term is often used to describe travel companies and ticket agencies that market themselves as airlines, but do not possess an

air operator's certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in plac ...

and contract with one or more certificated operators to fly and maintain aircraft, often under an

air charter Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

arrangement. Although operated by others from a regulatory standpoint, the aircraft may display the virtual airline's

livery A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

, and may be owned or leased by that company.

Origins

Virtual airlines originated in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

following the drastic changes brought about by the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. During the hyper-competitive years immediately following deregulation, major airlines found it increasingly unprofitable to compete against start-up carriers on many routes they currently served. Instead of forfeiting the routes entirely, the larger carriers often made marketing arrangements with smaller airlines to fly under the "banner", or livery, of the larger airline. These

regional airline A regional airline is a general classification of airline which typically operates scheduled passenger air service, using regional aircraft, between communities lacking sufficient demand or infrastructure to attract mainline flights. In North ...

s, mimicking the well known major airlines in adverts and purporting to make connections as seamless as possible, soon abandoned their own local service routes. In most cases, the regional airlines found it more profitable to serve the mainline hubs as a feeder operation rather than operate on their own. Manx2plane

List of virtual airlines

Africa

* Cally Air * FlyNamibia *

Lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobil ...

Europe

* Air Croatia (defunct) *

Air Leap Air Leap was the trading name of the Norwegian Virtual airline Air Leap AS and the Swedish airline Air Leap Aviation AB. History Air Leap was founded by the same owners as the airline FlyViking. After FlyViking ceased operations in January ...

(defunct) * Air Norway (defunct) *

Air Prishtina The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

* AirGotland * Airseven * Alpeflyet (defunct) *

Alsie Express Alsie Express is a Danish virtual airline based at Sønderborg. All flights are operated by its sister carrier, Air Alsie, as it is not an AOC holder. History Alsie Express was founded in 2013, and it started operation on the route between Sø ...

AnadoluJet AnadoluJet is a brand of Turkish Airlines operating as a regional airline. It operates domestic flights as well as flights to Northern Cyprus, Western Europe and Western Asia for its parent company. History The brand was created on 23 April 200 ...

Andorra Airlines Andorra Airlines is a Spanish regional airline headquartered in Barcelona and based at Andorra–La Seu d'Urgell Airport, serving the micro state of Andorra. History The airline was founded in 2015 by businessman Jorge Soriano and two partners ...

Arctic Airlink The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...

(defunct) *

BRA Braathens Regional Airlines Braathens Regional Airlines (BRA) is a Swedish airline founded in 2016 and one of the largest domestic airlines in Sweden. The company has its headquarters in Bromma, Stockholm. History BRA Braathens Regional Airlines was founded in 2016 with t ...

Citywing Citywing (a trading name of Citywing Aviation Services Limited) was an Isle of Man-based company that sold seats on scheduled air flights operated under charter. Flights linked several airports in the British Isles, with the company having a ba ...

(defunct) *

Color Air Color Air AS was the first Norwegian low-cost airline. It operated from Oslo Airport, Gardermoen in 1998 and 1999 with a fleet of three Boeing 737-300 aircraft. Color Air was a brand extension of Color Line, which shared a common owner in the ...

(defunct) *

CU Airlines CU or cu, may refer to: * Close-up, in film making * Cuba (ISO 3166, FIPS Pub 10-4 and obsolete NATO digram) ** .cu, Cuba's top-level domain country code * Old Church Slavonic (ISO 639 alpha-2 language code) * "See you", in e-mail shorthand * Cu ...

Evolavia Evolavia (styled as eVOLAvia) was a low-cost airline based in Ancona, Italy. Its name in Italian (''e vola via'') means ''and fly away''. It has been operating out of Ancona Airport since the middle of 2002 as a low-fare virtual airline, i.e. it ...

(defunct) *

Fly Marche Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced m ...

(defunct) * flyBAIR *

FlyNonstop Ansic AS, trading as FlyNonstop, was a virtual airline which operated out of Kristiansand Airport, Kjevik, Norway, in 2013. The airline had a 100-passenger Embraer 190 operated by Denim Air. FlyNonstop was owned by Espen Hennig-Olsen, and focuse ...

(defunct) * Global Reach Aviation * Green Airlines (defunct) * IGavion (defunct) * Jetisfaction (defunct) * Kosova Airlines * Krohn Air (defunct) * L'odyssey *

Level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights *Spirit level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical * Canal pound or level *Reg ...

* Lübeck Air * Manx2 (defunct) * MeerExpress (defunct) * Melilla Airlines (defunct) * MyWings * Niceair *

Rhein-Neckar Air Rhein-Neckar Air GmbH, commonly known as ''RNA'', is a German company that offers regional scheduled flights out of Mannheim City Airport. All flights are operated by the German airline MHS Aviation. The company's tag line is ''Fliegen wie priva ...

Sky Greenland Sky Greenland (formerly known as ''Greenland Express'') was a virtual airline headquartered in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, which started operations in June 2014, using a sole Fokker 100 leased from Denim Air ACMI. History Sky Greenland started ...

(defunct) * SkyAlps * Skåneflyg *

Snowbird Airlines Snowbird Airlines was a Finnish charter airline based at Helsinki Airport. The airline was founded in 2013 and was owned by Snowbird Airlines Oy (Ltd) while a separate company Lumilintu Oy (Ltd) operated marketing. The airline's planned to star ...

(defunct) * Soder Airlines (defunct) * Spanjet (defunct) * Sveaflyg * Sverigeflyg (defunct) *

Teddy Air Teddy Air AS was a regional airline, based at Skien Airport, Geiteryggen, in Norway. Operating between 1989 and 2004, the company operated Britten-Norman Islander, Embraer 110 and Saab 340 aircraft. The company started by providing a scheduled ...

(defunct) * Trawel Fly (defunct) * UEP!Fly * Vildanden (defunct) * Vizion Air * Västflyg

North America

With mainline-type equipment

* Aeroflyer *

Amazon Air Amazon Air, operating under the callsign Prime Air, is a cargo airline operating exclusively to transport Amazon packages. In 2017, it changed its name from Amazon Prime Air to Amazon Air to differentiate themselves from their autonomous drone ...

* Cal Jet Air (defunct) * Direct Air (defunct) *

Greyhound Air Greyhound Air was a short-lived Canadian discount airline. Launched by Greyhound Canada, the airline ceased 14 months later in September 1997, when Laidlaw acquired the Canadian bus line. Proposal Greyhound USA had suffered the incursion of the ...

(defunct) *

Hooters Air Hooters Air was an airline headquartered in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States. Hooters Air flights were operated by Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Pace Airlines both as ad hoc private charters, and as scheduled USDOT public charte ...

(defunct) *

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

(defunct) * OWG * Peoplexpress (defunct) *

Roots Air Roots Air was a low-cost airline based in Canada. It started and ceased operations in 2001. Code data *IATA Code: 6J *ICAO Code: SSV *Callsign: SKYTOUR History The airline was a brief experiment by clothier Roots Canada outside of its core b ...

(defunct) * Sky Cana * SkyValue (defunct) *

Tahoe Air Tahoe Air was a United States airline founded by Mark Sando, who used Casino Express Airlines to fund their plane purchase. Tahoe Air offered jet flights directly out of South Lake Tahoe via the South Lake Tahoe Airport. Scheduled passenger ...

(defunct) *

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

(defunct)

With regional-type equipment

Air Canada Express Air Canada Express is a brand name of regional feeder flights for Air Canada that are subcontracted to other airlines. As of March 2021, Jazz Aviation is the sole operator of Air Canada Express. They primarily connect smaller cities with Air Cana ...

Aleutian Airways Aleutian may refer to: * Aleut people, the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, the Pribilof Islands, the Shumagin Islands, and the far western part of the Alaska Peninsula in Alaska and of Kamchatka Krai, Russia * Aleutian disease, a disea ...

American Eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

Blade A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historic ...

* Branson Air Express (defunct) * Buzz (defunct) *

Chalk's Ocean Airways Chalk's International Airlines, formerly Chalk's Ocean Airways, was an airline with its headquarters on the grounds of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in unincorporated area, unincorporated Broward County, Florida, Broward County ...

(Post Flight 101) (defunct) *

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a regional airline brand name for Delta Air Lines, under which a number of individually owned regional airlines primarily operate short- and medium-haul routes. Mainline major air carriers often use regional airlines to ope ...

Delta Shuttle Delta Shuttle is the brand name for Delta Air Lines' air shuttle service in the Northeastern United States. History New York Air In 1980, airline industry entrepreneur Frank Lorenzo, through his holding company Texas Air Corporation, forme ...

FLOAT Shuttle FLOAT Shuttle that means ''Fly Over All Traffic'' is a Californian start-up commuter airline based in Pomona. The airline was founded by Arnel Guiang, Tom Hsieh, and Rob McKinney. The company offers a subscription service allowing customers to tr ...

* Go! (defunct) * Go!Express (defunct) * JSX *

NewLeaf NewLeaf Travel Company Inc., branded as NewLeaf, was a Canadian virtual airline, or ticket reseller, based at Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport in Manitoba. It sold tickets for flights operated by Flair Airlines. In J ...

(defunct) * OneJet (defunct) * Ravn Connect (defunct) * Southern Skyways *

Taos Air Taos Air is a Virtual airline (economics), virtual airline that operates seasonal scheduled public air charter service between Taos Regional Airport in Taos, New Mexico and several airports in California and Texas. The airline is owned by Taos Ski ...

* Ultimate Air Shuttle *

United Express United Express is the brand name for the regional branch of United Airlines, under which six individually owned regional airlines operate short- and medium-haul feeder flights. On October 1, 2010, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines merged t ...

References

External links

Business terms International business Outsourcing Civil aviation Airline types {{aviation-stub