xlgirl might not be too far off the mark.
The owner of Air Atlanta Icelandic must see the inefficiencies of the system he has at the moment.Air Atlanta Icelandic overseeing Air Atlanta Europe,providing ACMI to Excel,whilst his other ACMI airline,Islandsflug,plays around with a range of planes from..yes A300s/310s,B737-4and300s and even a Dornier 228 or two.By buying 40% of Excel,the owner made a subtle but big change from being an ACMI operator to owning an airline.He jumped from being someone who provided a service to airline operators,leaving the risks inherent with running an airline for them to sort out,to becoming a high risk airline operator himself.A big brave and some might say,stupid, move! If,as is rumoured, Air Atlanta Icelandic's owner is going to push Excel and Air Atlanta Europe together,which would reduce the number of Head Office staff,he must,at some stage think of bringing Islandsflug into the Air Atlanta Icelandic fold too.
But where is all this leading?The old swashbuckling Air Atlanta idea of flying second hand planes to meet the short term requirements of the world airlines might look as though it is gently being replaced by an
unwieldy giant.In the near future things look safe.AAI have a very successful Jumbo Classic freighter fleet of 20 plus planes.They have recently introduced the Jumbo 400 too.But my bet is that the dodgy AAE/Excel/and possibly some of Islandsflug will be packaged up together and sold as a going concern.Its how he made his money with the Russian brewery.And think;if Libra Holidays no longer own Excel,what's to stop them going elsewhere for there flights?