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by Norfadia. . 11 reads.

InterContinental Airlines

InterContinental Airlines

InterContinental Airlines






---IATA---
---IC---

---ICAO---
---ICO---

---Callsign---
---INTERCON---


Founded

November 9, 1920

Commenced Operation

May 25, 1921

Hubs

Toronto International Airport
Montreal International Airport

Frequent Flier Programme

InterContinental Miles

Subsidiaries

Northern Air
JetBlue (9.76%)
Azul (49%)

Fleet Size

193

Destination

152

Parent Company

InterContinental Holdings

Headquarters

Manhattan Tower, Montreal

Key people

Lady Anne Lawson (Chairwoman)
Sir Peter Morgan (CEO)

Revenue

$ 21.03 Billion (USD)

Net Income

$ 1.98 Billion (USD)

InterContinental Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Norfadia with its hub at Toronto and Montreal International Airport. The airline is notable for its use of Harling Girl as its central figure in corporate branding. It has been ranked as the world's best airline by Skytrax two times and topped Travel & Leisure's best airline rankings for more than 8 years.

InterContinental Holdings, the parent company of the airlines, has more than 20 subsidiaries, including many airline-related subsidiaries. InCon Engineering Company handles maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) business across nine countries, with a portfolio of 27 joint ventures, including Boeing and Rolls-Royce. InterContinental Airlines Cargo operates ICO's freighter fleet and manages the cargo-hold capacity in ICO's passenger aircraft. Northern Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary, operates as a low-cost carrier. InterContinental Holdings further owns the Centurion Hotels chain, a majority stake in Toronto and Montreal airports, with minority holdings of London, Paris, Mumbai and Sao Paolo International airports.


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History


Early years

In 1919, a young aviator lieutenant named Albert Mason sponsored the ELTA aviation exhibition in Montreal. The exhibition was a great success; after it closed, several Nordfadian commercial interests intended to establish a national Montreal, which Mason was nominated to head. In September 1920, King Edmund awarded the yet-to-be-founded Airlines its "Royal" predicate. On 9 November 1920, eight businessmen, including Juan Trippe, founded the Royal International Airlines, as one of the first commercial airline companies. Mason became its first administrator and director.

One of RIA's earliest DC-2s

The first RIA flight took place on 25 May 1921. RIA's first pilot, Jerry Shaw, flew from Victor Airfield, Toronto, to Montreal. The flight was flown using a De Haviland DH-16, which was carrying two British journalists and some newspapers. In 1922, RIA carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight. In April 1922, after a winter hiatus, RIA resumed its services using its pilots, and Fokker F.II and Fokker F.III aircraft. In 1921, RIA started scheduled services.

RIA's first intercontinental flight took off on 1 October 1928. The final destination was São Paulo, Brazil, the flight used a Fokker F.VII and was piloted by Logan Ricci. In September 1929, regular scheduled services between Toronto and Buenos Aires commenced. By 1926, it was offering flights to Chicago, New York City, Cleveland, Philadephia, Detroit, Toronto, and Montreal, using primarily Fokker F.II and Fokker F.III aircraft. InterContinental was the first airline to serve San Francisco's new San Francisco International Airport, starting March 1927.

In 1930, InterContinental (name changed to InterContinental in 1929) carried 15,143 passengers. The Douglas DC-2 was introduced on the São Paulo service in 1934. The first experimental transatlantic InterContinental flight was between Toronto and London in December 1934 using the Douglas DC-2. The first of the airline's Douglas DC-3 aircraft were delivered in 1936; these replaced the DC-2s on the service via São Paulo to other South American destinations.

Second World War

During the second world war, all routes to Europe barring the United Kingdom and Ireland were suspended. A third of its fleet was sold to the Norfadian Army and Navy air services. The carrier reoriented most of its route from Europe to North America and South America and leased out several of its aircraft and airports to the US Navy for its war effort.

Post-World War II

Lockheed L-749A Constellation
of InterCo in 1953

After the end of the Second World War in August 1945, InterContinental immediately started to rebuild its network. Since Europe was in a state of turmoil, Mason's priority was to re-establish InterCo's route to Continental Europe. This service was reinstated by the end of 1945. Domestic and American flights resumed in September 1945, initially with a fleet of Douglas DC-3s and Douglas DC-4s. By 1948, InterContinental had reconstructed its network and services to Africa, North and South America, and the Caribbean resumed.

Long-range, pressurized Lockheed Constellations and Douglas DC-6s joined InterCo's fleet in the late 1940s; the Convair 240 short-range pressurized twin-engined airliner began American flights for the company in late 1948.

During the immediate post-war period, the Harlington government expressed interest in gaining a majority stake in InterContinental and several other airlines, thus partially nationalizing it. Mason wanted InterCo to remain a private company under private control; he allowed the Harlington government to acquire a minority stake in the airline. In 1950, InterCo carried 306,069 passengers. The expansion of the network continued in the 1950s with the addition of several destinations in western Europe and North-Western Africa. InterCo's fleet expanded with the addition of new versions of the Lockheed Constellation and Lockheed Electra, of which it was the first Harlington airline to fly.

On 31 December 1953, the founder and president of InterContinental, Albert Mason, died at the age of 64. He was succeeded as president by Charles Jean-Bernard. After Mason's death, the company and other airlines entered a difficult economic period. The conversion to jet aircraft placed a further financial burden on InterContinental. The Norfadian government increased its ownership of the company to two-thirds, thus partly nationalizing it. The board of directors however remained under the control of private shareholders.

On 25 July 1957, the airline introduced its flight simulator for the Douglas DC-7C – the last InterContinental aircraft with piston engines – which opened the transpolar route from Toronto via Anchorage to Tokyo on 1 November 1958. Each crew flying the transpolar route over the Arctic was equipped with a winter survival kit, including a 7.62 mm selective-fire AR-10 carbine for use against polar bears, in the event the plane was forced down onto the polar ice.

Jet Age

InterContinental Boeing
747-206B in 1971.

The four-engine turboprop Vickers Viscount 800 was introduced on North American routes in 1957. Beginning in September 1959, InterContinental introduced the four-engine turboprop Lockheed L-188 Electra onto some of its North American and European Routes routes. In March 1960, the airline introduced the first Douglas DC-8 jet into its fleet. In 1961, InterContinental reported its first year of losses. In 1961, the airline's president Charles Jean-Bernard was succeeded by Ernst Jones. This change of leadership, however, did not lead to a reversal of InterContinental's financial difficulties. Jones resigned as president in 1963 due to health reasons. Horatio Richards was appointed to succeed Jones as president of InterContinental in 1963. Richards initiated a reorganization of the company, which led to the reduction of staff and air services. In 1965, Richards died in an air crash and was succeeded as president by Sir Bob Swanson. Swanson forged an agreement with the Harlington government that InterContinental would be once again run as a private company. By 1966, the stake of the Harlington government in InterContinental was reduced to a minority stake of 49.5%. In 1966, InterContinental introduced the Douglas DC-9 on North American and European routes.

The new terminal buildings at Toronto Airport opened in April 1967, and in 1968 the stretched Douglas DC-8-63 ("Super DC-8") entered service. With 244 seats, it was the largest airliner at the time. InterContinental was the first airline to put the higher-gross-weight Boeing 747-200B, powered by Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, into service in February 1971; this began the airline's use of widebody jets. In March 1971, InterContinental opened its current headquarters in Toronto city. In 1972, it purchased the first of several McDonnell Douglas DC-10 aircraft—McDonnell Douglas's response to Boeing's 747.

In 1973, Sergio Orlandini was appointed to succeed Bob Swanson as president of InterContinental. At the time, InterContinental, as well as other airlines, had to deal with overcapacity. Orlandini proposed to convert InterContinental 747s to "combis" that could carry a combination of passengers and freight in a mixed configuration on the main deck of the aircraft. In November 1975, the first of these seven Boeing 747-200B Combi aircraft were added to the InterContinental fleet. The airline previously operated DC-8 passenger and freight combi aircraft as well and currently operates Boeing 747-400 combi aircraft.

The 1973 oil crisis, which caused difficult economic conditions, led InterContinental to seek government assistance in arranging debt refinancing. The airline issued additional shares of stock to the government in return for its money. In the late 1970s, the government's stake had again increased to a majority of 78%, effectively re-nationalizing it. The company management was handed over to the Government in 1979.

1980s and 90s

The Department of Transport appointed Jeremy Hopkins to reorganise InterContinental and several other ailing airlines to streamline the aviation sector in Norfadia. Hopkins subsequently merged InterContinental with several other airlines including Northern Air, its biggest domestic competitor and Western Express the largest national cargo airlines under the InterContinental Holdings Company. However to prevent monopolisation of the market the domestic aviation market was deregulated and opened to competition by foreign airlines.

In 1980, InterContinental carried 9,715,069 passengers. In 1983, it reached an agreement with Boeing to convert ten of its Boeing 747-200 aircraft (Three 747-200Bs and Seven 747-200Ms) into Boeing 747-300s with the stretched-upper-deck modification. The work started in 1984 at the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington, and finished in 1986. The converted aircraft were called Boeing 747-200SUD or 747-300, which the airline operated in addition to three newly built Boeing 747-300s manufactured from the ground up. In 1983, InterContinental took delivery of the first of ten Airbus A310 passenger jets. Sergio Orlandini retired in 1987 and was succeeded as president of InterContinental by James Mackey. In 1986, the Harlington government's shareholding in InterContinental Holdings was reduced to 54.8 percent. It was expected that this share would be further reduced during the decade. The Boeing 747-400 was introduced into InterContinental's fleet in June 1989.

With the liberalization of the North American and European markets, InterContinental started developing its hub at Toronto and Montreal Airports by feeding its network with traffic from affiliated airlines. As part of its development of a worldwide network, InterContinental acquired a 35% stake in Continental Airlines in July 1989. In 1990, InterContinental carried 16,000,000 passengers. InterCo CEO James Mackey retired at the end of 1990 and was succeeded in 1991 by Peter Bow. In December 1991, InterContinental was the second North American airline to introduce a frequent flyer loyalty program, which was called AeroMiles (now replaced by InterContinental Miles).

Corporate Management




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Norfadia

Edited:

RawReport