AlbaStar

AlbaStar is one of those airlines you don’t look for in the schedule but discover by chance: a Boeing 737 with a Spanish registration that departs from Milan, takes pilgrims to Lourdes or suddenly flies to Mallorca for a tour operator in summer. That is exactly what makes the small charter airline from Palma interesting. This page explains how AlbaStar works, what is in the fleet and how to classify a sighting cleanly.

AlbaStar at a glance

AlbaStar is a private Spanish charter airline based in Palma de Mallorca. The company was founded on November 30, 2009. Behind it were aviation people with an Italian and British background, including former employees of the Spanish charter airline LTE International Airways and the Italian MyAir. The first aircraft, a Boeing 737-400, was christened “Pino D’Urso” after one of the founders.

The first flight went from Palma to Milan Malpensa in summer 2010 – and this axis describes the airline quite well to this day. Legally and by its registration AlbaStar is Spanish, but a large part of the business comes from Italy. Since 2014 there has been a base at Malpensa, later Milan Bergamo was added, and at times Trapani in Sicily was also listed as a base.

The business model is classic charter: AlbaStar sells aircraft capacity to tour operators, agencies, companies and organizers of group trips. On its own website the airline lists flights for tour operators, corporate and incentive travel, ad hoc charter and above all pilgrimage flights. How charter and scheduled service differ in general is explained in the article Charter flights versus scheduled flights.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code AP: appears in the flight number, for example on the departure board at the airport or in a tour operator’s travel documents.
• ICAO code LAV: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign ALBASTAR: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

With charter airlines, the attribution is often trickier than with scheduled airlines. The tour operator sells the trip under its own name, but the flight is operated by AlbaStar with its own flight number and its own callsign. For your notes, therefore, what counts is what is on the tracker and on the tail – not whose logo is on the travel brochure.

Spanish airline, Italian everyday life

If you see AlbaStar for the first time, you are often surprised: the aircraft wear Spanish EC- registrations but conspicuously often depart from northern Italy. That is not a contradiction but typical of the European charter market. An airline with an operating license in an EU country may fly freely within the EU and station its aircraft wherever the demand is.

At AlbaStar that is above all the Italian market. From Malpensa and Bergamo the airline flies for operators to holiday destinations around the Mediterranean, to the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. According to industry reports, longer routes were added in 2022 as well, for example from Milan to Sal in Cape Verde and from Bergamo to Dakar in Senegal. That shows how flexibly a small 737 fleet is used: whatever pays off for an operator gets flown.

The fleet: a small 737 family

AlbaStar has been an all-Boeing-737 airline from the start. The fleet is small and changes with the season and lease contracts, so you should always read numbers as a snapshot.

Period	Type	Seats	Spotter tip
since 2010 (historic)	Boeing 737-400	–	Launch fleet, first aircraft named “Pino D’Urso”
from 2011 (historic)	Boeing 737-400 freighter	–	In the fleet as a freighter from January 2011
since 2017	Boeing 737-800	189	Today’s workhorse, around five examples in 2025

The first two 737-800s arrived in spring 2017 and at the time supplemented four 737-400s. They came from the lessors Apollo Aviation Group and Castlelake. One of them initially flew not with a Spanish registration but with a Slovak one: the Bratislava-based charter airline AirExplore operated it for AlbaStar and based it at Malpensa. Such arrangements are common in the charter business – what lies behind them you can read in the article Wet lease explained.

By 2020, according to Airways Magazine, the fleet had grown to six 737-800s, with one 737-400 still flying in addition. According to industry data there were around five 737-800s in 2025, each with 189 seats. Many of these aircraft are not new but used aircraft from second or third hands. A 2024 report cited an average age of over 20 years for fall 2023. For spotters that is quite appealing: behind an AlbaStar registration there can be a long history with former operators. How to research something like that is shown in the article How old is this aircraft?.

The manufacturer of all types is Boeing. If you’re unsure about the generation, the guide How to tell the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart helps.

737-400 or 737-800? How to tell them apart

Even though the 737-400 is now history at AlbaStar, you come across it in old photos and in the archive. Both types look similar but belong to different generations.

Both generations have the flattened engine inlets, so they are no use for telling them apart. More reliable are fuselage length, wing shape and the winglets. With the current fleet, though, you can assume anyway: an AlbaStar 737 in 2026 is a 737-800.

Pilgrimage flights: AlbaStar’s trademark

One topic sets AlbaStar apart from many other charter airlines: religious travel. The airline promotes pilgrimage flights on its website as a separate line of business and points to many years of experience organizing such trips. According to Airways Magazine, AlbaStar serves Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport from more than 45 cities and is considered one of the most important providers of pilgrimage flights to Lourdes.

For spotters that is a good hint about where you are most likely to meet the airline. Pilgrimages have their own peak periods, often around church holidays and in the summer half of the year. Airports with many group trips to Lourdes then have good chances of an AlbaStar 737. Specific dates are usually not in public scheduled-service timetables but turn up at short notice on trackers or departure boards.

Technology and projects: WheelTug

For such a small airline, AlbaStar surprisingly often turns up in technology news. In July 2022 the manufacturer WheelTug presented the airline as the European launch customer for its electric nose-wheel system. With it, a 737 can taxi on the ground without its main engines running, which saves fuel, noise and emissions while taxiing.

Whether and to what extent the system is now installed in everyday service on AlbaStar aircraft is not clearly documented publicly. For you that means: if you see an AlbaStar 737 taxiing conspicuously quietly, a photo and a note are worthwhile – but you can only make reliable statements with a reputable source.

How to recognize AlbaStar

AlbaStar aircraft carry the “AlbaStar” titles on the fuselage. Because the fleet is small and charter airlines keep leasing aircraft in or out at short notice, the livery can vary, though: a leased aircraft sometimes flies in neutral white or still partly in the colors of its previous owner. The most reliable feature is therefore not the color but the combination of EC- registration, Boeing 737-800 and ICAO code LAV.

How to read registrations in general and which country stands behind which prefix is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations. With AlbaStar the rule is: EC- stands for Spain. If another prefix appears on an aircraft in AlbaStar service, like the Slovak registration in 2017, it is very likely that another airline is flying on AlbaStar’s behalf.

Spotting AlbaStar: where and when

Your best chances are at the bases. Palma de Mallorca is where the company is based, and in summer the airline is regularly seen there – but among the big leisure airlines a single AlbaStar 737 easily gets lost. You’ll find tips for spots on the island in the guide to plane spotting on Mallorca and on the page for Palma de Mallorca Airport.

In northern Italy AlbaStar is at home at Malpensa and Bergamo. At Malpensa, for example, the area at the aviation museum Volandia is a good choice: the spot Volandia at Milan Malpensa Airport combines a museum visit with air traffic.

In Germany AlbaStar is a seasonal guest. In 2024, for example, the airline flew in summer for tour operators from Düsseldorf and from Kassel to Palma, each time with a Boeing 737-800 once a week. Such connections depend on the operators’ contracts and can change from year to year. Check your airport’s current schedule before every outing.

Because AlbaStar usually shows up at an airport with only one or two rotations a day, good preparation is worthwhile. Check the runway direction in use before you take up position at a spot – otherwise you miss the one landing you were waiting for. The guide to runway direction in use at airports helps with this.

AlbaStar in the Spanish and Italian charter market

AlbaStar is not the only airline that supplies tour operators with aircraft. In Spain, Wamos Air, Privilege Style and Iberojet, for example, fly in the charter or leisure market, though often with larger aircraft and on long-haul. AlbaStar stays with the 737 on short- and medium-haul.

In the Italian leisure market AlbaStar meets airlines such as Neos or Blue Panorama. At Malpensa especially, these companies’ aircraft often stand side by side. For you that is a good comparison: with the registration prefix you separate the Spanish AlbaStar immediately from the Italian airlines with I- registrations.

Common mix-ups

• Thinking AlbaStar is an Italian airline – flight operations are strongly focused on Italy, but headquarters and registration are Spanish.
• Logging the tour operator as the airline – the flight runs under the AP flight number and LAV callsign, no matter who sells the trip.
• Confusing AlbaStar with the glider manufacturer Albastar – the company of the same name from Slovenia builds gliders and has nothing to do with the airline.
• Thinking a 737-800 is a 737-400 – fuselage length, wing and winglets reveal the generation.
• Thinking every aircraft in AlbaStar service is its own – in charter, aircraft are also leased in from other airlines.

Conclusion

AlbaStar is a small but independent charter airline: Spanish on paper, Italian in everyday life and with a special connection to pilgrimage trips to Lourdes. The fleet today consists of a handful of Boeing 737-800s that, depending on the season, are on the road for operators all over Europe. If you note registration and callsign, you turn a chance encounter into an unambiguous sighting.