ASL Aviation Holdings DAC (ASL), formerly the ASL Aviation Group, is an aviation services holding company focused on cargo and passenger airline operations, aircraft leasing and maintenance and aircraft parts support, based in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Today, ASL has eight airlines in Europe, South Africa, Asia and Australia, consisting of

ASL Airlines Ireland ASL Airlines Ireland (ASLI), formerly Air Contractors, is a cargo airline with an extensive operations network. It operates scheduled freight services throughout Europe on behalf of major parcel integrators such as Amazon Air, Amazon, FedEx Fee ...

ASL Airlines Belgium ASL Airlines Belgium,aslairlines.be - ASL AIRLINES BELGIUM formerly TNT Airways

ASL Airlines France ASL Airlines France (ASL), formerly ''Europe Airpost'', is an airline based in Paris-Charles de Gaulle and operates out of major French airports. The airline operates both cargo and passenger flights with a fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft including ...

, ASL Airlines United Kingdom in Europe,

ASL Airlines Australia ASL Airlines Australia, formerly Pionair, is an Australian charter and cargo airline based at Bankstown Airport in Sydney, NSW. It is a subsidiary of ASL Aviation Holdings. History Pionair was founded in 1991 in Queenstown, New Zealand as a sig ...

, formally Pionair Australia in Australia and joint venture and associate airlines

FlySafair FlySafair is an international low-cost airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a subsidiary of Safair and flies to 14 destinations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The company slogan is ''For The Love Of Flying.'' History The airline was estab ...

in South Africa, K-Mile Asia in Thailand and Quikjet Airlines in India. ASL also has various aircraft maintenance and aircraft support companies – ASL Maintenance (formally X-air services), ASL Airlines Services Switzerland and

ASL Airlines Hungary ASL Airlines Hungary Kft, formerly ''Farnair Hungary'', was an airline based on the property of Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Budapest, Hungary."." Farnair Europe. Retrieved on 19 February 2012. "H-1185 Budapest Liszt Ferenc ROK ...

. In 2022, the company reported a profit of €46.6 million in 2021 revenues of €1.13 billion.

History

The group began with

Safair Freighters Safair is an airline based at the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Kempton Park, Gauteng, Kempton Park, South Africa. It operates one of the world's largest fleets of civil Lockheed L-100 Hercules cargo aircraft.Safmarine Safmarine, short for South African Marine Corporation, and latterly South African Marine Container Lines, was a South African shipping line, established in 1946, which offered freight transport services with cargo liners and container ships. It ...

acquired Tropair. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom in 1972, Air Bridge Carriers was established. In September 1992, the company was renamed Hunting Cargo Airlines and in 1997 all airline operations were transferred to Ireland. In 1994, Safair Freighters was renamed Safair and as a result of the Hunting Group's sale of its aviation-related companies in June 1998 to the joint consortium of

Compagnie Maritime Belge The Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) is one of the oldest Antwerp ship-owners. It is controlled by the Saverys family who also own major stakes in the Exmar and Euronav groups. History CMB was founded in 1895 under the name Compagnie Belge Maritim ...

/Safair (party of the Imperial Group), the airline was rebranded the company as Air Contractors. The Imperial Group transferred its shares in the company to 3P Air Freighters in 2007. Air Contractors acquired French carrier

Europe Airpost ASL Airlines France (ASL), formerly ''Europe Airpost'', is an airline based in Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and operates out of major French airports. The airline operates both cargo and passenger flights with a fleet of Boe ...

on 14 March 2008. Following the acquisition of EAP into the ASL group of companies, the group was rebranded ASL Aviation Group, representing the three core activities of the group; ''Airlines'', ''Support'' and ''Leasing''. In 2010, the acquisition of the Safair Group was finalised and in 2013 Safair introduced a

broad-based black economic empowerment Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a policy of the South African government which aims to facilitate broader participation in the economy by black people. A form of affirmative action, it is intended especially to redress the inequalities cre ...

programme, allowing ASL to retain a minority share in the company. Low-cost airline FlySafair was established by Safair in 2013. On 4 December 2014, the company acquired the Farnair Group in Switzerland. On 4 June 2015, ASL Aviation Group announced that Air Contractors would be rebranded as ASL Airlines Ireland,

as ASL Airlines France, Farnair Hungary as ASL Airlines Hungary and Farnair Switzerland as ASL Airlines Switzerland. The company acquired

TNT Airways Troponin T (shortened TnT or TropT) is a part of the troponin complex, which are proteins integral to the contraction of skeletal and heart muscles. They are expressed in skeletal and cardiac myocytes. Troponin T binds to tropomyosin and helps ...

and

PAN Air Pan or PAN may refer to: Food * Pan (cooking), a piece of cooking equipment * Harina P.A.N., a pre-cooked corn meal * Pan or Paan, a North Indian term for betel Prefix * ''Pan-'', a prefix meaning "all", "of everything", or "involving all m ...

on 12 February 2016 and became ASL Airlines Belgium and ASL Airlines Spain. In 2017, ASL Aviation Group was renamed to ASL Aviation Holdings. ASL Airlines Switzerland ceased airline operations on 1 February 2018, while ASL Airlines Spain ceased all operations in August 2018. On 4 June 2019, STAR Capital Partnership became the 100% shareholder in the company. In 2021, ASL Airlines United Kingdom was launched. In 2021, the company reported profits of €43.6m after tax and revenue of €1,131.5m with cash reserves increasing to 46.3% year on year to €192.2m. ASL acquired 100% ownership of ASL Maintenance (formally X-air services) on 9 August 2022. The company was previously jointly-owned on a fifty-fifty basis by ASL and

Sabena technics Created in 1968, Sabena technics is an independent MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) provider offering services to civil and military aircraft operators. History 1968: Founding of Touraine Air Transport by Michel Marchais The air trans ...

. In December 2022, the company re-launched joint-venture airline Quikjet Airlines with the renewal of a new

air operators 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 air transport purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets and ...

and the delivery of its first

Boeing 737-800BCF The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a twin-engine narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third-generation derivative of the Boeing 737, it has been pr ...

. On 9 January 2023, Quikjet relaunched operations in India with a second Boeing 737-800BCF operating on behalf of

Amazon Air Amazon Air (often branded as Prime Air) is a virtual 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 Amazon Prime Air au ...

. On 4 March 2023, the company acquired Australian airline Pionair and rebranded it

Operations

ASL Airlines operates ACMI services on charter cargo transport services on behalf of express integrators and online retailers such as

FedEx Express FedEx Express is a major American cargo airline based in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. As of 2023, it is the world's List of largest airlines, largest cargo airline in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown. It is the namesake and leadi ...

, Amazon Air,

UPS UPS most commonly refers to: * Uninterruptible power supply, a device which provides continuous power to electronics * United Parcel Service, an American courier company UPS or ups may also refer to: Companies and organizations United Parcel S ...

and

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

. ASL aircraft operate scheduled and charter cargo services under the brand ASL Airlines on routes in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Africa. These include ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France, ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines United Kingdom, ASL Airlines Australia, K-Mile Asia, and Safair. ASL Airlines France and FlySafair are the company's scheduled passenger services, based in Europe and South Africa respectively. ASL has a leasing division, focusing cargo aircraft leasing and sales options to operators. The company has two maintenance and aircraft parts support subsidiaries, ASL Maintenance and ASL Airlines Services Switzerland

Fleet

The company has a global fleet of 152 aircraft. the fleet consists of:

References

{{reflist Airlines established in 1970 Airlines of the Republic of Ireland Companies based in Dublin (city) Irish companies established in 1970 Cargo airlines