Cimber Sterling A/S, also known as Cimber Air and styled as Cimber Sterling, was a Danish

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 ...

based in

Sønderborg (; ) is a Denmark, Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 28,333 (1 January 2025),Sønderborg Municipality Sønderborg Municipality (, ), is a '' kommune'' in the Region of Southern Denmark partially on the Jutland peninsula and partially on the island of Als in south Denmark, at the border with Germany. The municipality covers an area of , and has a po ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, operating scheduled domestic and international services in co-operation with

Scandinavian Airlines The Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), commonly known as Scandinavian Airlines, is the national airline of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It is part of SAS Group and is headquartered in Solna, Sweden. Including its subsidiaries SAS Link and ...

(SAS) and

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

. Its main bases were

Copenhagen Airport Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (, ) is an international airport serving Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, as well as the wider Øresund Region, including Zealand and the southern Sweden, Swedish province of Scania. In 2023 it was the largest ai ...

and

Billund Airport Billund Airport () is an airport in Denmark. Located northeast of Billund, Denmark, Billund, it serves as one of the country's busiest Cargo airline, air cargo centres, as well as a charter airline destination. It is the List of the busiest a ...

, with a smaller base at

Aalborg Airport Aalborg Airport () is a dual-use (civilian/military) airport located in Nørresundby, Aalborg Municipality, Denmark, which is northwest of Aalborg. History Aalborg Airport was opened in 1938 as the second national airport. During World War II, ...

. The airline filed for bankruptcy on 3 May 2012.

History

Cimber Air was founded in 1950 by Ingolf Lorenz Nielson who took over Sønderjyllands Flyveselskab. Its first aircraft was a single engine SAI KZ III, call sign OY-DMO which had been used for flights primarily between Sønderborg and Copenhagen. In 1969 the airline took delivery of an eight-seat

De Havilland Dove The de Havilland DH.104 Dove is a British short-haul airliner developed and manufactured by de Havilland. The design, which was a monoplane successor to the pre-war Dragon Rapide biplane, came about from the Brabazon Committee report which, a ...

twin-engine light airliner. Cimber Air was one of the very few operators of the

VFW-Fokker 614 The VFW-Fokker 614 (also VFW 614) was a twin-engined jet airliner, jetliner designed and constructed by joint Netherlands, Dutch and West Germany, West German aviation company VFW-Fokker. It is the first jet-powered passenger liner to be develope ...

regional jet. It also operated

Nord 262 Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televi ...

and

Grumman Gulfstream I The Grumman Gulfstream I (company designation G-159) is a twin-turboprop business aircraft. It first flew on August 14, 1958. Design and development After first rejecting an idea to develop the Grumman Widgeon as an executive transport, the co ...

turboprop aircraft on its scheduled services. On 3 December 2008 Cimber Air bought parts of

Sterling Airlines Sterling Airlines A/S was a low-cost airline with its head office at Copenhagen Airport South in Dragør, Dragør Municipality, Denmark. It was created in September 2005 through the merger of two Danish airlines — Sterling European Airli ...

, which had filed for bankruptcy on 29 October 2008. The new airline, which was named Cimber-Sterling, was created on 7 January 2009. Cimber bought the AOC (Air Operators Certificate), slots, brand and website (www.sterling.com and other domains). Aircraft leases were negotiated with the owners. Employees of the former Sterling Airlines was not part of the takeover, but were welcome to seek employment in the new airline. Cimber Sterling was originally wholly owned by Cimber Air Holding (Nielsen family) and had 368 employees (at March 2007). It was listed on the

Copenhagen Stock Exchange The Nasdaq Copenhagen, formerly known as the Copenhagen Stock Exchange (), is an international marketplace for Danish securities, including shares, bonds, treasury bills and notes, and financial futures and options. Nasdaq Copenhagen is on ...

in 2009. In 2011, due to financial difficulties Cimber Sterling entered into a subscription agreement with Mansvell Enterprises Ltd, which gave Ukrainian billionaire

Ihor Kolomoyskyi Ihor Valeriyovych Kolomoyskyi (; ; born 13 February 1963) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli billionaire businessman, once considered the leading oligarch in Ukraine. Already an entrepreneur in the last years of Soviet Ukraine, in 2010 Kolomoyskyi w ...

a stake of 70.8%. On the morning of 3 May 2012, Cimber Sterling cancelled all flights and declared bankruptcy. Within hours, other airlines announced their entry on selected routes. Cimber Sterling was the main sponsor of the Danish handball team in 2009 and 2010.

Fleet

The Cimber Sterling fleet included the following aircraft ():

References

External links

www.cimber.comwww.cimber.dk

www.cimber.se Cimber Group
{{Portal bar, Aviation, Companies, Denmark Defunct airlines of Denmark European Regions Airline Association Airlines established in 1950 Airlines disestablished in 2012 Danish companies established in 1950 2012 disestablishments in Denmark