Belair Airlines

If you stood on the observation deck in Zurich between 2001 and 2017, you almost certainly saw Belair – you just did not always recognize it. First it looked like the old Balair, later like Air Berlin. Behind it was a Swiss leisure airline that the tour operator Hotelplan conjured up in the middle of the Swissair collapse and that later became the Swiss arm of Air Berlin. This page tells how Belair came about, which aircraft it flew and how you recognize it in old photos and logbooks.

Belair at a glance

Belair Airlines was a Swiss leisure airline that flew from November 2001 to October 2017. Its headquarters were in Glattbrugg, a district of Opfikon right next to Zurich Airport. Later EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg was added as a second base. The business consisted of leisure flights to the Mediterranean, Egypt and the Canary Islands.

The history of Belair splits into two clearly separate halves. Until 2007 it was the house airline of Hotelplan, the tour operator of Migros, and flew with Boeing 757s and 767s. After that Air Berlin came on board, gradually took over the airline completely and made it its Swiss flight operation with Airbus jets in its own design. When Air Berlin collapsed in 2017, that was the end for Belair too.

For spotters, Belair is now a chapter from the archive – but an exciting one. It connects two great bankruptcies in aviation history, the Swissair grounding of 2001 and the end of Air Berlin in 2017, and it is one of the airlines whose aircraft are easy to misattribute in photos.

The backstory: Balair and the Swissair grounding

To understand Belair, you have to take a step back. For decades the name Balair stood in Switzerland for leisure and charter flights, most recently as a subsidiary of Swissair flying on behalf of Hotelplan. More on the long history of this brand can be found on the page on Balair.

In fall 2001 the Swissair group collapsed, and with it Balair ended too. Its last flight landed in Zurich on October 5, 2001. That left Hotelplan with a problem: the guests were booked, the vacation destinations sold, but the airline was missing. The operator decided, together with its parent group Migros, to found an airline itself. How Swissair itself fell apart and what became of it can be read on its own page.

The pace was remarkable: between the last Balair flight and the first Belair flight there were not even four weeks. That was possible because Hotelplan could take over Balair’s two Boeing 757s and draw on experienced staff. Because the name changed by only one letter, the aircraft were provisionally repainted with little effort – which is why the first Belair jets looked very similar to the old Balair.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code 4T: appeared on tickets and in the flight number, in the Air Berlin era mainly on routes outside the EU.
• ICAO code BHP: used by air traffic control in the flight plan.
• Callsign BELAIR: this is how the crews checked in on the radio.

It gets tricky in the Air Berlin era: flights within the EU were marketed by Air Berlin under its own code AB, even though Belair operated them. Only for destinations outside the EU did separate 4T flight numbers stay in use, because bilateral traffic rights there were tied to the Swiss airline. If you find an AB flight number from Zurich or Basel in old logbooks, you may well have had a Belair aircraft in front of you.

The Belair fleet

The fleet reflects the airline’s two eras exactly. Under Hotelplan, Belair relied on jets from Boeing, under Air Berlin on the A320 family from Airbus. The numbers are small – Belair was never a big airline, but a compact leisure carrier.

Type	Period (approx.)	Use	Spotter note
Boeing 757-200	2001 to 2009/2010	Leisure routes from Zurich	Two aircraft, HB-IHR and HB-IHS, taken over from Balair
Boeing 767-300ER	until 2009	Long-haul	Leased, HB-ISE
Airbus A319	approx. 2009 to 2017	Leisure flights in the Air Berlin network	In Air Berlin livery, recognizable only by the HB registration
Airbus A320	approx. 2009 to 2017	Leisure flights in the Air Berlin network	In Air Berlin livery, recognizable only by the HB registration
Airbus A321	2017	Leisure flights for Niki	Four aircraft from April 2017, then handed over to Niki

For many spotters the two 757s are the real Belair aircraft. The slim twinjets with the long fuselage and tall landing gear suited leisure traffic perfectly: enough range for the Canary Islands or Egypt, enough seats for full package-tour flights. If you want to tell the 757 from the larger 767 in old photos, you will find the differences in the guide Telling the Boeing 757 and 767 apart.

A special detail: the 757 HB-IHR was modified together with Rega so that it could also be used to repatriate patients when needed. In everyday service it remained a leisure aircraft, but the additional role makes it a small rarity in Swiss aviation history.

After the complete takeover by Air Berlin, the 757s and 767 were retired in November 2009; individual sources date the end of the 757 only to 2010. After that Belair flew only Airbus jets of the A320 family. How to tell the A319, A320 and A321 apart in photos is shown in the post Reliably telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart.

The Hotelplan years (2001–2007)

In the first years Belair was at its core a tool of the tour operator: Hotelplan sold the package tours, Belair flew the guests. You know the model from many European leisure airlines, where operator and airline sit under one roof. The difference between such flights and classic scheduled service is explained in the post Charter flight and scheduled flight.

With the leased 767-300ER, Belair could also serve long-haul destinations – an offering that had to be reorganized in Switzerland after the Swissair structures disappeared. Alongside it, Edelweiss Air, already founded in 1995, flew as another Swiss leisure airline that still exists today. If you want to piece together the Swiss leisure airline landscape of those years, you should also take a look at Crossair, from which today’s Swiss emerged.

The Air Berlin years (2007–2017)

In 2007 came the turning point. Air Berlin came on board at the previous sole owner Hotelplan and gradually took a stake of up to 49 percent. The strategic partnership began on November 1, 2007, and in October 2009 Air Berlin had full control.

For spotters, what changed above all was the look. The 757s were repainted in Air Berlin colors, and Belair increasingly appeared under the parent’s brand; from November 2009 the name remained only as a company name. From this point on, Belair was hardly recognizable from the outside as an airline of its own.

On January 1, 2010, Air Berlin bundled its Swiss activities: the crews of Air Berlin Switzerland, CHS Switzerland and Belair were merged into Belair Airlines AG. Belair was thus effectively the Swiss flight operation of Air Berlin – with departures from Zurich and Basel within the Air Berlin network. Frequent flyers collected miles on these flights in the Air Berlin program topbonus.

You can read the whole history of the parent, from its beginnings to its collapse, in the post Air Berlin.

How to recognize Belair

The honest answer: often only by the registration. Because Belair wore two other designs in succession, the titles alone rarely help. The era tells you what to look for.

• 2001 to 2007: provisionally repainted ex-Balair jets with Belair name, plus Boeing 757 or 767. Watch the titles – Balair or Belair – and the date of the shot.
• 2007 to 2009: the Boeing 757 in Air Berlin design. A 757 with a Swiss registration in Air Berlin colors is a strong indication of Belair.
• 2009 to 2017: Airbus A319, A320 and A321 in Air Berlin livery. Here almost only the HB registration decides whether you had a Belair or a German Air Berlin aircraft in front of you.

The transitional phases with half-new colors are especially interesting for spotters. How to classify such mixed forms is shown in the guide on hybrid and mixed liveries.

The end: from the closure announcement to insolvency

As early as the beginning of 2017, Belair was on the brink. In the course of the Air Berlin restructuring, the company confirmed on January 13, 2017 that flight operations were to end in late March; shortly afterward the withdrawal from Basel was also announced. In early March came the about-face: operations were extended until the end of October 2017, and from April 1, A321s flew for the sister Niki.

Belair is thus considered the last company of the Air Berlin group to go into insolvency. The route network remained a typical leisure airline network until the end, with destinations on the Mediterranean, in Egypt and on the Canary Islands – airports such as Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria or Tenerife South. How Belair’s end compares with other bankruptcies is put in context by the post on major airline bankruptcies in Europe.

Belair in the spotter’s everyday life today

For your logbook, Belair is above all an archive topic. If you photographed in Zurich between 2001 and 2009, you may still find the 757 and the 767 in old folders – often filed under “Balair” or “Air Berlin.” It is worth going through these pictures again and checking the registration. How to follow an aircraft’s life history via the serial number is shown in the guide How old is this aircraft?.

If you return to the place of Belair’s history today, you will find good vantage points in Zurich, such as observation deck B or the Butzenbüel. An overview of all the options at Switzerland’s largest airport is offered by the guide to plane spotting in Zurich.

Common mix-ups

• Equating Belair and Balair – Balair ended on October 5, 2001, Belair was the newly founded successor of Hotelplan.
• Taking Belair for a Swissair subsidiary – on the contrary, it came about precisely because the Swissair group had collapsed.
• Logging every Air Berlin aircraft in Zurich as German Air Berlin – with an HB registration it was very likely Belair.
• Taking the 757 HB-IHR for an ambulance jet – it was a leisure aircraft with additional Rega equipment for repatriations.
• Taking AB flight numbers as proof against Belair – within the EU, Belair flew under Air Berlin’s code.
• Confusing Belair with Niki – in 2017 Belair flew on behalf of Niki, but remained a Swiss company of its own.

Conclusion

Belair was an airline between two collapses: born from the Swissair grounding of 2001, ended by the demise of Air Berlin in 2017. In between lay a few years as a Hotelplan leisure airline with Boeing 757s and 767s and a longer phase as an inconspicuous Swiss flight operation of Air Berlin. For spotters it is a nice detective task – first the similarity to Balair, then the foreign design, and in the end it is almost always the registration that decides. You will find more leisure airlines with history at LTU and Germania.