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With the BAC 1-11 leaving the British Airways fleet , European inherited many of the former maintenance engineers who were looking for work on the aging jets . In 1995 , EAAC selected Bournemouth as its operating and maintenance base , taking over the former aircraft production hangars , with its new head office located across the road . In due course , the group ’ s maintenance branch at Bournemouth became renowned for its worldwide support .
In the early 2000s , European amassed a sizable fleet of 737- 200s and 747-200s , using them in the charter sector with tour operators for flights to Europe and North America .
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But the airline business ceased operations in 2008 . The parent company , European Aviation , has continued to trade to this day with an extensive aircraft part , employee training , maintenance , and brokerage business operating from its original base at Bournemouth Airport . It has acquired around 20 passenger aircraft , put them through heavy checks , and then sold them . Since 2018 , the business began to acquire Airbus A340s that were coming to the end of their life with commercial passenger operators Iberia , Etihad , and Virgin Atlantic . It scrapped some of these for parts and resold others to new operators like Azman Air of Nigeria and Spain ’ s Plus Ultra Líneas Aéreas . |
What European did not know was that the remainder stored at Bournemouth would get a new lease on life .
ANSWERING THE CALL
In April 2020 , the demand for air cargo capacity skyrocketed as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and commercial flights ground to a halt around the world . European Aviation received a request from a charter broker looking to transport personal protective equipment ( PPE ) and test kits from Asia for the UK National Health Service ( NHS ). European suddenly found itself operating commercial flights once again — and formed the European Cargo business .
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4 The bespoke cargo pods are contoured to make the most of the cabin space . Roller mats allow packages to be moved at pace along the cabin floor in and out of the standard L2 and L4 doors . |
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