Quantum Air (formerly known as AeBal, Aerolíneas de Baleares) was 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 ...

based in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. It operated domestic scheduled services within Spain, as well as

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the re ...

and ACMI operations all over Europe. Its fleet was originally

wet-lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

d to

Spanair Spanair S.A. was a Spanish airline, with its head office in the Spanair Building in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Until 2009, it was a subsidiary of the SAS Group; the same parent company in control of Scandinavian Airlines and held ...

for use on domestic and international routes, but since 14 September 2008, they have operated on their own.

History

Aerolíneas de Baleares

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is a trade association of the world's airlines founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tarif ...

Code: DF *

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

Code: ABH *

Callsign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assi ...

: Air Balear AeBal was established in 1999 with headquarters in

Son Sant Joan Airport Palma de Mallorca Airport ( ca, Aeroport de Palma de Mallorca, es, link=no, Aeropuerto de Palma de Mallorca; ; also known as Son Sant Joan Airport or ''Aeroport de Son Sant Joan'') is an international airport located east of Palma, Mallorca ...

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 community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...

. Originally it was intended to be named AB Bluestar but the name was changed to AeBal, Aerolíneas de Baleares. The company started operations on 5 July 2000 from

with domestic services and an initial fleet of three

Boeing 717 The Boeing 717 is an American five-abreast single-aisle airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The twin-engine airliner was developed for the 100-seat market and originally marketed by McDonnell Douglas as the MD-95. It was a shor ...

aircraft. It was owned by Grupo Marsans (51%),

SAS Group SAS AB (Scandinavian Airlines System Aktiebolag), trading as SAS Group, is an airline holding company headquartered in the SAS Frösundavik Office Building in Solna Municipality, Sweden. It is the owner of the airlines Scandinavian Airlines an ...

(25%),

(18%) and VITRAC (6%). The company operated under the name AeBal-Spanair Link, retaining much of its Spanair pedigree in the livery. It had 155 employees in March 2007. A number of changes in the shareholding structure of the company ended up with SAS Group owning 100% of the company. AeBal ceased operations on 16 September 2008, as part of the Spanair economic restructuring plan, canceling their wet-lease agreement.

Quantum Air

AeBal ceased to exist after it was sold by SAS in January 2009 to Proturin, a Spanish investment company controlled by former

Aerolíneas Argentinas Aerolíneas Argentinas, formally Aerolíneas Argentinas S.A., is Argentina's largest airline and the country flag carrier. The airline was created in 1949 from the merger of four companies and started operations in . A consortium led by Iberia ...

CEO, Antonio Mata. In March 2009, AeBal was replaced by Quantum Air and its main base was moved from Mallorca to

Madrid Barajas Airport Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. Mata tried unsuccessfully to replace the ageing MD-87 with newer

. After several defaults in the payments of the plane leases, SAS made a move to impound the fleet and the planes were grounded during the legal squabbles that followed between SAS and Antonio Mata.Quantum Air suspende temporalmente su actividad 26 de enero de 2010 Europa Press
/ref> On 26 January 2010 Quantum Air temporarily ceased operations and ticketing. Finally in October 2012 a court in Palma de Mallorca issued a verdict in favour of the company, ordering SAS to pay 6.3 million €.

Destinations

Quantum Air operated to the following domestic scheduled destinations (as of July 2009): *

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

Bilbao Airport Bilbao Airport is a minor international airport located north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in Biscay. It is the largest airport in the Basque Country and northern Spain, with 5,469,453 passengers in 2018. It is famous for its new ...

Fuerteventura Fuerteventura () is one of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the North Africa region, and politically part of Spain. It is located away from the northwestern coast of Africa. The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNE ...

Fuerteventura Airport Fuerteventura Airport , also known as El Matorral Airport, is an airport serving the Spanish island of Fuerteventura. It is situated in El Matorral, southwest of the capital city Puerto del Rosario. The airport has flight connections to over 8 ...

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...

Gran Canaria Airport Gran Canaria Airport , sometimes also known as Gando Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Gran Canaria), is a passenger and freight airport on the island of Gran Canaria. It is an important airport within the Spanish air-transport network (owned and manag ...

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

Lanzarote Airport César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de César Manrique-Lanzarote), commonly known as Lanzarote Airport and also known as ''Arrecife Airport'', is the airport serving the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The airport is l ...

Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas ) , commonly known as Madrid–Barajas Airport, is the main international airport serving Madrid in Spain. At in area, it is the second-largest ai ...

- base **

Palma de Mallorca Airport Palma de Mallorca Airport ( ca, Aeroport de Palma de Mallorca, es, link=no, Aeropuerto de Palma de Mallorca; ; also known as Son Sant Joan Airport or ''Aeroport de Son Sant Joan'') is an international airport located east of Palma, Mallorca, ...

- base **

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

- Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna Airport **

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

Málaga Airport Málaga Airport , officially Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Málaga-Costa del Sol) since June 2011, is the fourth busiest airport in Spain after Madrid–Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. It is significant for Sp ...

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

San Pablo Airport Seville Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Sevilla) is the sixth busiest inland airport in Spain. It is the main international airport serving Western Andalusia in southern Spain, and neighbouring provinces. The airport has flight connections to 42 de ...

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in ...

Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández, ca-valencia, Aeroport d'Alacant-Elx Miguel Hernández), , is an international airport located about southwest of the city of Alicante and about ...

Fleet

The Quantum Air fleet consisted of the following aircraft as of November 12, 2009. The entire fleet was delivered starting September 2010 to

Blue1 Blue1 Oy was a Finnish airline owned by CityJet. It was a subsidiary of the SAS Group and flew to around 28 destinations in Europe, mainly from its base at Helsinki Airport. It carried over 1.7 million passengers in 2011.

.Quantum Air Fleet

References

External links

*
Official website
(dead link, replaced by an unrelated website) (Japanese) {{SAS Group Airlines established in 1999 Airlines disestablished in 2010 Defunct airlines of Spain Former Star Alliance affiliate members Spanish companies established in 1999 Spanish companies disestablished in 2010