ASL Airlines Belgium,aslairlines.be - ASL AIRLINES BELGIUM formerly TNT Airways
retrieved 26 June 2016 (ASLB) formerly ''TNT Airways'', is a Belgian

cargo airline Cargo airlines (or air freight carriers, and derivatives of these names) are airlines mainly dedicated to the transport of air cargo, cargo by air. Some cargo airlines are divisions or subsidiaries of larger passenger airlines. In 2018, airli ...

operating chartered flights mainly to European destinations. It has its head office and hub on the grounds of

Liège Airport Liege Airport , previously called Liege-Bierset Airport, is an international airport located in Grâce-Hollogne, 5 nautical miles (9.3 kilometres; 5.8 miles) west of the city of Liège, Belgium. The airport mainly focuses on air freight. At th ...

. The airline was originally a subsidiary of

TNT Express TNT Express was an international courier delivery services company with its headquarters in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. It was acquired by FedEx. History The namesake Thomas Nationwide Transport grandfather company was originally started in 1946 w ...

but was acquired by ASL Aviation Holdings DAC and rebranded in 2016. ASL Aviation Holdings DAC, the parent company of ASL Airlines Belgium, is headquartered in

Swords A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

County Dublin County Dublin ( or ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, and holds its capital city, Dublin. It is located on the island's east coast, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Until 1994, County Dubli ...

, Ireland. ASLB operates worldwide

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

freighter services under the ASL Aviation Holdings brand and for major express integrator and e-commerce customers including

FedEx FedEx Corporation, originally known as Federal Express Corporation, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company specializing in Package delivery, transportation, e-commerce, and ...

and

Alibaba Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational internet technology company. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Ali Baba and the Forty T ...

. In addition to its own fleet, the airline also manages various third-party airlines providing aircraft for FedEx's European network.

History

TNT Express was established in Australia in the 1940s, by Ken Thomas. The company expanded from a single truck to road and rail freight services across Australia including, for the first time, new overnight services. In 1958, the company became known as Thomas Nationwide Transport or TNT for short and, by 1961, TNT had become so successful that it was listed on the Australian stock exchange. The company was founded in 1999 as

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 ...

in Belgium. Air cargo operations began in Belgium and operated from

. TNT Airways started to work with BAe 146-300 and Airbus A300. This transformation brought the company to an extension from a European to a Worldwide coverage. The Group introduced their first Boeing 737-300 in 2003. In May 2004, TNT Post Group (TPG) announced major expansion of the TNT Express European air hub in Liège, Belgium. To consolidate and improve recognition of the TNT brand, the name 'TPG' was dropped in favor of 'TNT' in 2005. The split-up of TNT N.V. which was announced in December 2010, materialized in May 2011 when TNT Express and TNT Post (now: PostNL) were separately listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. In May 2016, ASL Aviation Holdings acquires TNT Airways which joins the ASL portfolio of 9 other airlines in Europe, South Africa and Asia. Rebranded as ASL Airlines Belgium, the Airline signs a multi-year service agreement with the new Fedex/TNT combination.

Destinations

As of November 2021, ASL Airlines Belgium serves six scheduled destinations in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

and China under its own brand nameaslairlines.be - Services
retrieved 6 November 2021 with several dozen more operated as contracted charters, e. g. on behalf of

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, ...

Fleet

, the ASL Airlines Belgium fleet consists of the following registered aircraft:

Current fleet

Retired Fleet

In June 2021, ASL Aviation Holdings announced it had ordered up to 20 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) aircraft - 10 firm orders and 10 options at the

Paris Air Show The Paris Air Show (, ''Salon du Bourget'') is a trade fair and air show held in odd years at Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France. Organized by the French aerospace industry's primary representative body, the ''Groupement des industries frança ...

. This was extended to an additional 20 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighters (BCF) in March 2022. ASL's order, including options brings the number of 737-800BCF to 40 aircraft. Eleven aircraft operate for ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France,

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 ...

and ASL's joint venture airline, K-Mile Asia.

Accidents and incidents

* On 15 June 2006, ''TNT Airways Flight 325N'', a

Boeing 737-300 The Boeing 737 Classic is a series of narrow-body airliners produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the second generation of the Boeing 737 series of aircraft. Development began in 1979 and the first variant, the 737-300, first flew in Febru ...

cargo aircraft operating a flight from

London Stansted Airport Stansted Airport is an international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Uttlesford, Essex, northeast of Central London. As London's Airports of London, third-bu ...

had to divert to

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is to the south and Lincoln, England, Lincoln northeast. It serves the maj ...

due to bad weather. On

final approach In aeronautics, the final approach (also called the final leg and final approach leg) is the last leg in an aircraft's approach to landing, when the aircraft is lined up with the runway and descending for landing.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of A ...

the

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of a vehicle without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allow ...

was disengaged for a short period. The aircraft touched down on the grass to the left of the runway, resulting in the right main

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

being detached and the right

wing tip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of sha ...

and engine scraping the ground. The flight crew managed to lift off again and subsequently made an emergency diversion to Birmingham International Airport, where a landing was performed on the nose and left main landing gear, during which the aircraft scraped its nose and right engine. There were no injuries, but thousands of passengers had to be moved to other airports. The cause of the incident was determined to be a poorly-timed message from local

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

which a pilot misinterpreted, causing the plane to descend too quickly. The

system was disengaged due to a "momentary lapse". The flight crewmembers were said by the airline to have managed the situation with skill once the error had been detected, but were dismissed from service with the company as a result of the incident.

References

External links

*
Official website
{{Portal bar, Belgium, Companies, Aviation Airlines of Belgium Airlines established in 1999 Cargo airlines of Belgium Postal system of the Netherlands Companies based in Liège Belgian companies established in 1999 Transport in Liège