Airline groups

DHL Aviation

Yellow with red lettering – and yet every DHL freighter has a different airline behind it. DHL Aviation is the web of own airlines, stakes and contract partners that flies DHL Group’s express shipments through the night.

Lufthansa Group

since 1953

Lufthansa Group is not an airline but a group with a dozen operating carriers – from Lufthansa to SWISS and Austrian to Eurowings and ITA Airways. If you only look for the crane at the fence, you miss half the group.

TUI airlines

Five airlines, one design: under the TUI smile fly German, British, Belgian, Dutch and Swedish leisure airlines. If you just note “TUI” at the fence, you’re wasting half the sighting.

Zeitfracht Group

since 1927

A freight forwarder with roots in Stendal that entered aviation in 2017: the Zeitfracht Group bought WDL Aviation and LGW and shaped them into German Airways – the Cologne-based E190 operator you often see under someone else’s flight number.

Air France-KLM

since 2004

Air France-KLM is a French-Dutch group with two network airlines, two Transavia operations and its own regional subsidiaries. If you only look for blue-white-red or KLM blue at the fence, you miss half the group.

Abra Group

since 2022

Since 2022, the Abra Group has brought Colombia’s Avianca and Brazil’s GOL under one roof – two airlines, two fleet worlds, two colors. Here is how the group is organized and how to recognize its aircraft.

ASL Aviation Holdings

Hardly any group flies as many parcels through Europe’s night as ASL Aviation Holdings from Swords near Dublin. Here you learn how Air Contractors and TNT Airways became ASL Airlines Ireland and Belgium, which jets they fly and how to identify them reliably on the apron.

Avia Solutions Group

since 2010

Founded in Vilnius, now headquartered in Dublin: Avia Solutions Group leases aircraft with crew to other airlines through its own airlines. Here you learn how the group is structured, what became of SmartLynx and how to attribute its jets on the apron.

Ryanair Holdings

since 1996

Behind the yellow harp are five airlines with their own certificates, codes and registrations. Ryanair Holdings is Europe’s largest airline group by passengers – and for spotters a puzzle of EI-, 9H-, SP- and G- registrations.

International Airlines Group (IAG)

since 2011

The International Airlines Group is the company behind British Airways, Iberia, Vueling, Aer Lingus and LEVEL. If you spot at Heathrow, Madrid, Barcelona or Dublin, you are right in IAG territory – but you won’t see the group’s name on a single fuselage.

Alaska Air Group

since 1985

Since 2024, Alaska Air Group has brought Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines under one roof, along with regional subsidiary Horizon Air. Two brands, one operating certificate and, since 2026, one shared code – for spotters, telling them apart now comes down to the details.