Hapag-Lloyd Express (previously also marketed as ''HLX.com'') was a no-frills, high-frequency, express

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 Langenhagen,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It operated services within Germany and to destinations in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In January 2007 it combined its operations with those of

Hapag-Lloyd Flug Hapag-Lloyd Flug (between 2005 and 2007 also marketed as ''Hapagfly'') was a German leisure airline headquartered in Langenhagen, Lower Saxony that was originally founded by Hapag-Lloyd and later became a subsidiary of TUI Group. It operated sch ...

to become

TUIfly TUI fly Deutschland, formerly ''TUIfly'', is a German leisure airline owned by the travel and tourism company TUI Group. It is headquartered at Hannover Airport with bases at several other German airports. TUI fly Deutschland is part of TUI Gr ...

. While Hapag-Lloyd Flug operated all TUIfly flights, Hapag-Lloyd Express marketed them until TUIfly got its own licence.

History

Hapag-Lloyd Express was established in 2002 and began operations in December 2002 – two months after

Germanwings Germanwings GmbH was a German low-cost airline wholly owned by Lufthansa which operated under the Eurowings brand. It was based in Cologne with hubs at Cologne Bonn Airport, Stuttgart Airport, Hamburg Airport, Berlin Tegel Airport, Munich Airp ...

, its direct German competitor at hub Cologne Bonn airport. Despite starting its service later and serving fewer routes, HLX gained a higher name recognition and a better reputation through its category-defining campaign "Fly for the price of a taxi". The airline subsequently won the efficiency award "Effie" in Germany and Europe in recognition of its more effective branding and marketing. Its main competitors were more established no-frills carriers such as Ryanair and

EasyJet EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...

, as well as other low-cost startups such as

or Transavia.com, consequently being constantly engaged in a

price war A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...

with these carriers. In an attempt to win this price war, it expanded rapidly in the first half of 2004, announcing many new routes that it viewed as underserved by other airlines. Examples of such routes include

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and Stuttgart, both of which are no longer in operation. In January 2007, Hapag-Lloyd Express and Hapag-Lloyd Flug were merged into the cooperation

in an attempt to reorganize TUI's airline portfolio. HLX adopted the IATA code of the now defunct Russian

Baikal Airlines OJSC "Baikal Airlines" (russian: ОАО «Авиакомпания «Байкал») was an airline based in Irkutsk, Russia. It was founded in 1991 and liquidated in 2001. Fleet The Baikal Airlines fleet included Antonov An-24, Antonov An-26 a ...

Services

Hapag-Lloyd Express offered no-frills services to destinations in Germany and Europe. Most of them are now operated by

Fleet

All Hapag-Lloyd Express aircraft were

wetlease 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 from Hapag-Lloyd Flug or Germania. The fleet consisted of 17

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a 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 twinjet retains the Boeing 707, 7 ...

aircraft and two

Fokker 100 The Fokker 100 is a regional jet produced by Fokker in the Netherlands. The Fokker 100 is based on the Fokker F28 with a fuselage stretched by to seat up to 109 passengers, up from 85. It is powered by two newer Rolls-Royce Tay turbofans, ...

s. The Fokker 100s left Hapag-Lloyd Express in 2006.

Livery

Hapag-Lloyd Express aircraft were highly recognisable due to their distinctive " New York taxi" style: a checkered black and white line wrapped around a yellow body, aiming to convey the image of quick and cheap point-to-point service.

References

External links

Hlx.com
(archive)

{{European Low Fares Airline Association European Low Fares Airline Association Defunct airlines of Germany Defunct European low-cost airlines Airlines established in 2002 Airlines disestablished in 2007 German companies established in 2002 German companies disestablished in 2007