Swiftair S.A. is an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

whose headquarters are in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It operates scheduled and charter, passenger, and cargo flights in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Its main base is

Madrid–Barajas Airport Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport is the main international airport serving Madrid, the capital city of Spain. At in area, it is the second-largest airport in Europe by physical size behind Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In 2019, 61.8 ...

History

The airline was founded in 1986. It wholly owns subsidiary Mediterranean Air Freight. Currently Swiftair is also a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

contractor for the

United Nations Mission in Sudan The United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) was established by the UN Security Council under Resolution 1590 of 24 March 2005, in response to the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of the Sudan and the Sud ...

Fleet

Current fleet

, the Swiftair fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Former fleet

Swiftair formerly operated the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

* In October 1994, one of its aircraft was written off when the crew forgot to lower the landing gear as the plane arrived in Madrid. * In May 1995, another aircraft was damaged beyond repair during a botched landing at Vitoria airport in Spain. * In 2005, a Boeing 727 operating for DHL sustained starboard wing damage during a botched landing in Kandahar. It was repaired over the next 2 days and returned to Bahrain. * In January 2012, a plane sustained substantial damage during a botched landing at Kandahar. * On 24 July 2014, a

McDonnell Douglas MD-83 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gener ...

operated by the company performed scheduled flight AH5017 from Ouagadougou to Algiers for Algerian airline

Air Algérie Air Algérie SpA (, ) is the flag carrier of Algeria, with its head office in the El-Djazair office block in Algiers. With flights operating mostly from Houari Boumedienne Airport in Algiers and Ahmed Ben Bella Airport in Oran, Air Algérie op ...

. The aircraft disappeared off radar 50 minutes after takeoff and crashed in Gossi,

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

, killing all 116 people on board. * On 18 January 2016, an Embraer 120 freighter took out runway edge lights during its takeoff roll at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, on a flight to London Stansted. No injuries occurred. * On 17 November 2016, a Boeing 737–400, registration EC-MAD, was flying on behalf of EAT Leipzig out of Shannon Airport when the pilots reported shortly after liftoff that they had lost all instrumentation. The crew remained in visual contact with the airport and returned for a safe landing. * On 24 September 2022, a Boeing 737-400SF, registration EC-NLS, experienced a runway excursion at Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport, France. After breaking through the barriers, the plane ended its journey in the waters of the

Étang de l'Or Étang de l'Or, or Golden Lagoon, is a large, shallow, Brackish water, brackish body of water in the Département of Hérault in the south of France. Its surface area is 30 km². Being directly connected to the Mediterranean Sea and to several ...

. There were no injuries among the three crew members. * On 25 November 2024, Swiftair Flight 5960, a Boeing 737–476(SF) registered as EC-MFE, crashed in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

while on approach, killing one crew member and injuring three others.

References

External links

Official website
Companies based in the Community of Madrid Airlines of Spain Airlines established in 1986 1986 establishments in Spain {{Europe-airline-stub