Airlines Remembered

Hapag-Lloyd Flug

Photos © R.Leeuw

Ceased operations: April 2005 (rebranded HapagFly)
Homebase: Hannover, Germany
Founded: 1972
ICAO callsign: Hapaglloyd
IATA / ICAO prefix: HF / HLF
Operations: passengers

 


Airbus A310-204 D-AHLZ (c/n 468) is seen here at Hannover, Germany on 30Oct99.

 

The German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd set up the airline in July 1972 (shipping companies Evergreen, Maersk and Nedlloyd saw the same opportunities with resp. Eva Airlines -Taiwan-, Maersk Airlines -Denmark- and Martinair from the Netherlands).
Flights started in March 1973, initially with 3 Boeing 727s. By 1979 the fleet had grown to 8 727s.
In 1978 Bavaria-Germanair was taken over and Hapag-Lloyd Flug inherited BAC 1-11s and Airbus A300B4s; the 1-11s were sold. Six A300B4s were replaced by A310s and Boeing 737-400s were introduced to the fleet as well (1990).
With the introduction of the Airbus A310 the route network expanded across the Atlantic, to North America and the Caribbean.
Hapag-Lloyd was quick to order the Boeing 737-800s and these joined the fleet as from 1999.
The route network from Germany included a wide range of destinations, including the Mediterranean area, the Canary Isles, Africa, Midle East, Far East and Caribbean, mainly serving tour operator TUI (Preussag).

 


Boeing 737-8K5 D-AHFI (c/n 27984/220) is seen here on take off at FRA on 01May01.

 

Preussag (of Germany) is the parent company (or large shareholder) of a wide selection of airline companies, such as ThomsonFly (BY/London Luton, formerly knows as Britannia Airways), Britannia Airways Scandinavia (6B/Stockholm Arlanda), Corsair (SS/Paris Orly), Hapag-Lloyd (HF/Hanover), Neos (NO/Milan Malpensa) and White Eagle Aviation (WEA/Warsaw). The rebranding of Hapag-Lloyd to HapagFly is part of a rebranding to a common signature across the borders.

 

By 2005 the fleet of Hapag-Lloyd Flug included 5 Boeing 737-500s, 2 Boeing 737-700s, 33 Boeing 737-800s (aprox. 10 more on order) and 5 Airbus A310s (both -200s and -300s).

 

Sources:
Airlines Worldwide, by B.I.Hengi (Midland Publishing, 2000)
JP Airline Fleets 2005
Links: Airline Histories


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Last updated 4.4.2006