Originally Posted by
duvie
Thanks guys, that exactly what I wanted to know. So, DHL bought airborne and their aviation division. Since DHL is foreign owned they can't operate an airline of their own, so now they contract out to the old DHL airways AKA ABX and Astar which is Airbornes old air division. Gotcha.
Are both of these airlines are completely controlled by DHL?
Technically no, but in practice perhaps?
Wholly owned subsidiaries?
Is there speculation or actual credible evidence of those two companies becoming one?
When you guys fly, is there anybody else on the airplane besides the 2/3 guys up front?
Thanks for all the info
ABX Air was the former wholly owned subsidiary airline for Airborne. It is now a publically traded independant corporation working under contract for DHL. ABX also has an active growing business as a contract carrier for others.
Astar is the former DHL Airways. They are privately held. They also have a contract to haul for DHL.
I guess that depends on what you mean by controlled. There is a contact. It has certain terms. Among them is a prohibition, in so many words, that prrevents us from doing any flying for Fedex or UPS. It allows DHL to specify which cities within the U.S. we fly to for DHL. DHL does not have all of ABX's aircraft under contact, and cannot tell us what to do with those it does not, nor can they tell us what cities we can fly to with those aircraft it has not contracted for.
There is always some speculation and or rumor. It would probably be cheaper for DHL to elminate the overhead of having two airlines flying for them in the U.S., but I personally doubt it will happen anytime soon. Doing so does not fit DHL/DP's current business model. This could change of course.
We carry ABX/Astar crewmembers commuting to/from ILN to work. We also carry specially approved company employees to and from various stations we serve on company business, and there are scheduled deadheads for some flights. We can also carry CASS approved crewmembers from carriers other than Astar, but that is relatively rare. Few people want to travel in the middle of the night on a freighter.
