Hapag-Lloyd Express

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

(previously also marketed as ''HLX.com'') was a

no-frills A no-frills or no frills service or product is one for which the non-essential features have been removed to keep the price low. The term " frills" originally refers to a style of fabric decoration. Something offered to customers for no additional ...

, high-frequency, express

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

Langenhagen Langenhagen (; Eastphalian: ''Langenhogen'') is a town in the Hanover district of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. Overview Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It operated services within Germany and to destinations 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 ...

. On 15 January 2007, it combined its operations with those of

Hapag-Lloyd Flug Hapag-Lloyd Flug GmbH (known as Hapagfly GmbH between 2005 and 2007) 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 sc ...

to become

TUIfly TUI fly Deutschland (legally TUIfly GmbH), 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 Deutsch ...

. 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 ...

, its direct German competitor at Cologne Bonn. 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 Ryanair is an Irish Low-cost carrier#Ultra low-cost carrier, ultra low-cost airline group headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, Ireland. The parent company, Ryanair Holdings plc, includes subsidiaries Ryanair , Malta Air, Buzz (Ryanair), Buzz ...

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 airlin ...

, as well as other low-cost startups such as

or Transavia.com, consequently being constantly engaged in a

price war A price war is a form of market competition in which companies within an industry engage in aggressive pricing activity "characterized by the repeated cutting of prices below those of competitors". This leads to a cycle, where each competitor att ...

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 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 ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

and

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

, 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" () 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 and Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft, as well as a leased Boeing 757 o ...

Services

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

Fleet

Most of Hapag-Lloyd Express' aircraft were

wet-lease 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, as well as to provide ...

d from Hapag-Lloyd Flug.

Livery

Hapag-Lloyd Express aircraft were highly recognizable due to their distinctive "

New York taxi Taxicabs in New York City come in two varieties: yellow and green; they are widely recognizable symbols of the city. Taxis painted yellow (medallion taxis) are able to pick up passengers anywhere in the five boroughs. Taxis painted apple green (s ...

" 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