West Air Sweden operating as West Atlantic is a cargo airline based in Gothenburg, Sweden. It operates scheduled and ad hoc freight charter services for FedEx, DHL, TNT and UPS. It is also contracted to operate mail flights 6 nights a week on behalf of the Swedish post office. Its main bases are Lidköping-Hovby Airport (LDK) and Malmö Airport (MMX).
Since 2011 the airline has been part of the West Atlantic Group along with British cargo airline Atlantic Airlines, both airline trade as West Atlantic with its headquarters in Sweden.[1]
History
The airline was established in 1955 as LBF-Eda Varken operating air taxi flights. The name was changed to Abal Air in 1982 and to West Air Sweden in 1992, in co junction with the new airline Time Air Sweden. It then converted to a cargo airline in May 1997 after discontinuing scheduled passenger services between Säve and Sundsvall. During 2006 West Air won a contract with the Norwegian Postal services rendering an expansion of 50% of West Air's capacity.[citation needed]
Fleet
Current fleet
The West Air Sweden fleet consists of the following aircraft as of January 2016: [1]
Historical fleet
| Aircraft |
Note |
| ATR 72 |
Operated from 2006 to 2013 |
Accidents and Incidents
- On January 8th 2016, West Air Sweden Flight 294, a Bombardier CRJ200 was operating a cargo flight from Oslo Airport, Gardermoen to Tromso Airport, when it lost radar contact shortly after declaring an emergency at 23:31Z. The aircraft was later located having impacted the side of a mountain northwest of Lake Akkajaure about 10km from the border of Norway in mountainous area without road access. The flight was carrying 4.5 tons of mail and parcels.[2] Swedish authorities stated that there is "no chance" the two pilots, the only people on board, would have survived this accident.[3]
References
External links
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