Hellas Jet was a charter airline based in Athens, Greece, operating services to Greece from destinations elsewhere in Europe. Its main base was Athens International Airport. Hellas Jet was a licensed scheduled and charter carrier, holding a JAA AOC and a Line Maintenance Certificate under JAA/EASA Part 145, both approved by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority. It ceased operations in 2010 due to economic difficulties. The repossession of two of its Airbus A320 aircraft, 87 and 88, was documented on Discovery channel TV programme Airplane Repo. The company slogan was More than a flight.
History
The airline was started in 2002 as a Cyprus Airways subsidiary and the first flight was on 24 June 2003 from Athens. At the end of its first year of operation, it had completed 3,855 flights and carried over 250,000 passengers. Due to heavy losses, Hellas Jet suspended all scheduled flights from 10 May 2005. In January 2006, the airline announced it would refocus on charter operations. In August 2006, Cyprus Airways sold its shares to Air Miles, the trading name of Trans World Aviation. The aim was to resume services later in 2007 using wet leased Airbus A320 aircraft. It was wholly owned by Air Miles and had 50 employees (at March 2009).
- 2 × Airbus A320-212 reg. SX-BVK and SX-BVL, with CFM engines and full Hellas Jet livery. These aircraft were eventually repossessed and returned to the lessor in the United States after the airline defaulted on their payments.
- 4 × Fokker 50 for a subsidiary company named Hellas Aviation, acquired to operate domestic flights to the Greek Islands, but this company never actually commenced commercial operations and the Fokkers were sold.
Accidents and incidents
On 5 May 2006, a Hellas Jet Airbus A320 was destroyed in a fire in the Sabena Technics hangar at Brussels Airport in Belgium. The plane was one of the three Airbus A320s destroyed, one belonging to Armavia, one to Armenian International Airways, and one Lockheed C-130 owned by the Belgian Air Component.