Conair of Scandinavia A/S was a Danish

charter airline 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 ...

which operated between 1965 and 1993. Established by Simon Spies, it originally had a fleet of

Douglas DC-7 The Douglas DC-7 is an American transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered transport made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earl ...

aircraft, taken over from Flying Enterprise. From about 1970, the airline replaced its fleet with

Boeing 720 The Boeing 720 is an American narrow-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Announced in July 1957 as a 707 derivative for shorter flights from shorter runways, the 720 first flew on November 23, 1959. Its type certificate was ...

aircraft, bought from

Eastern Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

. From around 1979 these were replaced by the stronger engine version Boeing 720B. It bought second-hand

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is a wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Airbus. In September 1967, aircraft manufacturers in the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a large airliner. West ...

in 1987, and in 1991 six new

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

. The airline was based at

Copenhagen Airport Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup ( da, Københavns Lufthavn, Kastrup, ; ) is an international airport serving Copenhagen, Denmark, Zealand, the Øresund Region, and southern Sweden including Scania. It is the second largest airport in the Nordic ...

. In 1993, it merged with Scanair to establish Premiair, today

Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia Sunclass Airlines A/S (formerly Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia) is a Danish charter airline that operates charter services from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The company is affiliated with Ving Group, a Nordic tour operator. It and Vin ...

which still has its base at Copenhagen Kastrup Airport, EKCH/CPH.

History

Conair was founded by the Scandinavian charter pioneer Simon Spies in 1965. The fleet was from scratch old Douglas DC-7 propeller aircraft, which was taken over from Flying Enterprise. Around 1970 Conair got in to the "jet age", and bought second-hand Boeing 720s instead. (Boeing 720 was a mid-distance version of the Boeing 707). In autumn of 1987, two Conair Boeing 720s had their nose gear cracked during otherwise normal landings in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

, Austria and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, Italy. The fleet was already set to be renewed to (also second-hand) Airbus A300s. But after the two incidents the changing of the fleet became a very urgent issue. After the death of Simon Spies, his rather new wife and former secretary Janni Spies (born Brodersen, some 40 years younger than the founder himself) got ahead of the whole Spies corporation (where the traveling agency Spies rejser was included) and she employed her brother, a former carpenter, as general manager. They soon ordered six new very expensive

s at the same time as the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

occurred. In the aftermath of the war, a sudden drop in numbers of flight passenger worldwide was a factor (which among other things) led to the bankruptcy of

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

. Conair and the Spies traveling agency were saved (almost as a Danish national treasure due to the huge popularity for the former "charter-king", the deceased Simon Spies) by banks, and Janni Spies and her staff were replaced. In 1993 Conair merged with a Swedish charter airline company, Scanair, into Premiair. Later the name was changed to My Travel. Today it is known as

, still having its base at Copenhagen Airport. Conair primarily flew tourists from the Spies traveling agency, but also served several other travel agencies. The vast majority of flights had their destinations in the Mediterranean area but also at Canary Islands, Gambia, London, Rome and Paris. Beside their main base at Copenhagen, flights also departed from

Billund Airport Billund Airport ( da, Billund Lufthavn) is an airport in Denmark. Located northeast of Billund, it serves as one of the country's busiest air cargo centres, as well as a charter airline destination. Most major European airports are connected ...

and Stockholm, Sweden. {{Portal bar, Aviation, Companies, Denmark Defunct airlines of Denmark Airlines established in 1965 Airlines disestablished in 1993 1965 establishments in Denmark 1993 disestablishments in Denmark