MARKET REPORT - Saab Aircraft Leasing

MARKET REPORT
OLT CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Germany’s second oldest airline, regional carrier OLT
(Ostfriesische Lufttransport GmbH), celebrated its 50th
anniversary with a special party at the airline’s Emden base
on September 12.
fleet reflects the nature of operations. At the same time, while we are a
small airline, we operate on a much broader level through key strategic
partnerships with bigger airlines – SAS, Malev, Icelandair and SN
Brussels.”
OLT was founded in 1958 at Emden and is owned by two shipping
companies, Reederei Agems (74.9%) and FLN Frisia Luftverkehr
(Reederei Norden-Frisia) (25.1%). Initially, the airline operated air taxi
flights to islands in the North Sea. Services were expanded to charter
flights within Europe and in 1991 to scheduled services on domestic
regional routes from Bremen.
Co-Managing Director Dr. Berhard Brons adds: “Over the past 50
years our company’s success has been based on the fact that OLT has
always paid attention to customer demand and, with a great degree of
flexibility, has developed promising niche markets. Larger carriers
often ignore destinations with regular passenger loads of 20-100 passengers.
That’s exactly where our strength lies.”
A steady expansion of the regional timetable has continued since
1993, starting with scheduled flights to Bremen-Brussels and
Nuremberg. These are now operated by a fleet of Saab 2000s and
Saab 340s, assisted by Metroliners and Fokker 100s.
“Niche operations is what we have always been about,” says Managing
Director Gerd Weber. “We go to places that other airlines don’t and our
The first Saab was introduced in 1999 when the airline was looking
for a larger aircraft and was drawn to Saab aircraft because of its superior
comfort and strong product support.
“From the outset, the aircraft was popular with passengers and it was
not long before a bigger aircraft was required as OLT looked to add
more international services,” notes Weber.
SAAB 2000 AEW&C ON
DISPLAY AT FARNBOROUGH
The Saab 2000 ERIEYE Airborne Early Warning & Command System
(AEW&C) took a brief pause from its successful flight test program to
make a debut appearance at the Farnborough International Air Show in
July. The flight test program began in April in Linköping and moved to
Granada, Spain for the favorable weather and hot and high conditions during
the summer prior to arriving at the world’s largest air show. Towards
the end of this year, the aircraft will be handed over to Saab Surveillance
Systems to implement the systems testing phase of the program.
The Saab 2000 AEW&C is an advanced tactical surveillance system. It
utilizes the latest generation Active Electronically Scanned Array ERI-
EYE radar, now capable of detecting small air and sea targets, hovering
helicopters and cruise missiles. It has a 450km instrumented range
and provides coverage at 20km (65,000 ft) and can effectively survey a
500,000 square meter area and automatically track priority targets. In addition
to the AEW&C role, the aircraft can be used for national security
and border protection missions, as an airborne command and control for
disaster management coordination or emergency air traffic control.
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Market Report | October 2008