History Karair

karhumäki airways logo



niilo , valto karhumäki, later founders of airline, in 1927.

originally called karhumäki airways, company founded in 1947 subsidiary of veljekset karhumäki oy, aircraft manufacturing , maintenance company owned niilo , valto karhumäki. in june 1951 scheduled services began between helsinki , joensuu, jyväskylä, vaasa , sundsvall. operating on domestic routes fleet of 4 douglas dc-3 , 2 convair cv-440 metropolitan airliners, first international flight (to stockholm) took place in 1951, followed holiday flights málaga.

in 1956 airline reorganised kar-air oy , started operations in january 1957. swedish subsidiary established, 1961 onwards operated single douglas dc-6 on chartered flights southern europe. in 1962, aero o/y acquired 27 percent stake in kar-air, increased 51 percent on following years, since kar-air had encountered financial difficulties when 2 metropolitans damaged in hard landings , had taken out of service period in 1963. new majority owner demanded kar-air cease domestic flying, concentrating on charter flights (mainly mediterranean) holiday resorts instead. purpose, aero o/y handed on 2 of own dc-6 aircraft, kar-air used multiple stopover round-the-world flights.

kar-air logo



douglas dc-6b of kar-air fitted swing tail operating freight flight manchester in 1979

the dc-6s remained backbone of kar-air passenger fleet until 1972, when jet age joined introduction of 189-seat douglas dc-8. 1 dc-6 re-configured swing tail unit cargo transport purposes , stayed airline until 1980, operating freight flights finnair uk , other european destinations, when cargo flights taken on finnair (as aero o/y named then). in same year, airline underwent rebranding, being known karair, styled karair henceforth. on following years, karair reduced fleet, because charter contracts finnair had been terminated.

in 1986, 2 airbus a300 wide-body airliners joined karair fleet, again leased finnair , deployed on holiday charter flights. finnair s plans karair changed 1989, when first of 6 atr 72 short-haul turboprop aircraft added fleet, , a300s in turn left following year. then, scheduled domestic passenger flights on behalf of finnair operated.

in 1990, finnair acquired further shares hold total of 90 percent of karair stake, further increased 97.6 percent in 1993. these period saw financial problems because of recession of 1990s, led finnair announcing full take-over of karair in december 1995. subsequently, karair fleet , airline s operations merged finnair, move completed in september 1996. in 2002, court deemed take-over illegal, , finnair forced salvage remaining karair stocks.