Marabu (airline)

Marabu, styled as marabu and legally incorporated as Marabu Airlines OÜ, is an Estonian leisure airline headquartered in Tallinn, with operations based at Hamburg Airport, Leipzig Airport and Nuremberg Airport in Germany, as well as two seasonal bases Mallorca Airport in Spain and Heraklion Airport in Greece. Ticket sales are handled by Condor, which describes the carrier as a "sister airline".[1]

History

On 13 December 2022, Attestor Capital, the owner of a 51% stake in German leisure airline Condor, announced the incorporation of an Estonia-registered carrier, with operations starting in the 2023 summer season, utilising Airbus A320neo aircraft chartered from Nordica. The carrier is fully owned by German-based special purpose vehicle CD Ferienflug Hessen Holding GmbH.[2]

On 15 April 2023, Marabu's first aircraft, registered ES-MBU, flew the first service from Munich to Palma de Mallorca under the callsign MBU6508.[3]

Shortly after its inauguration, Marabu faced media attention and severe criticism due to several major delays, flight cancellations and supposedly insufficient communication to customers. The airline stated technical issues with leased aircraft and missing cabin crew as a cause and planned to phase-in additional third-party operators to stabilize the schedule.[4][5][6] Trying to stabilize its operations, Marabu cancelled their routes from both Hamburg and Munich to Tallinn before they even started and cut the flights from Hamburg to Rome after just few flights.[7]

Destinations

The carrier serves around 20 holiday destinations in Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain.[8] It was also announced that a larger range of destinations in Germany would be served.[9][10]

Fleet

External links