Bavarian Airlines

Bavarian Airlines or Bayerische Fluggesellschaft, commonly known as Bavarian is Bavaria's largest airline by fleet, destinations and passengers carried. It is also the countries flag carrier and has been since its origination in 1950. Since its humble beginnings it has expanded into the large full fledged carrier that it has become today. It has expanded by purchasing bavania in 2007 and sunglobe in 2014. That serve as the airline's regional and vacation operators. The airlines main office is located in Erlangen while however its largest hub is at Munich, it has been like this due to legal significance and history. It was originally fully owned by the Bavarian Government and at this time the airline had its largest hub in Nuremberg, it made logical sense to have its hub in Erlangen. However since then the location has not been moved elsewhere.

1950s: Post-war (re-)formation
The airline's original purpose was to carry mail for Bayerische Post when it began its operations in 1950 the airline began with 3 aircraft that would carry mail to and from german cities and town and also to surrounding countries. In 1953 the airline began to carry other cargo such as food, and perishable items for rush delivery from Italy and Mediterranean Countries. This had served the airline well and it was a strategic move the airline by 1956 operated 5 planes that flew to: Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Spain and France. The airlines main cargo at this time however remained in fresh foods such as fish, and in delivering mail and packages around Europe. By 1958 the airline had 6 planes. It begun to become profitable, and it could sustain itself without government aid.

1960s: Introduction of jetliners
By the early 1960's the airline had made the wise decision to expand into passenger service. Its first route would fly passengers to Berlin in Germany it became a very successful service for the airline through its Nuremberg hub and by 1963 it began to operate daily. The airline aquired 2 727's in 1965, that would begin to fly to London Heathrow and Paris. It increased Bavaria's connection to the rest of Europe and the airline was booming with 5 daily flights out of Nuremberg being almost packed everyday. By the end of 1965 the airline had requested a grant from The Government of Bavaria and it was granted. It would allow the airline to purchase 3 more 727's.

1970s–1980s: The wide-body era
By 1970 Bavarian had 8 727's operating daily throughout Europe and had its successful routes established, as-well as smaller routes serving the countries and smaller cities around its borders. The airline had made the decision of purchasing 2 747's to expand their service into North America and also into Asia. The first flight took place in June of 1973, and it was headed for New York Airport. It was booked out, and at the time the route was booked solid for the following 4 1/2 months. It was the most successful route that the airline had at that time. It had decided to scrap its Asia service in favor of more capacity to New York. Which meant the airline served 2 daily flights 2 New York. Nuremberg Airport at this point had to expand its terminal to fit more passengers for the capacity that Bavarian Airlines kept adding regularly. By the end of 1976 it had received its 3rd 747 that would fly regularly to Hong Kong via Beijing. The airlines route network began to work in a wonderful and cohesive harmony, where it really complimented itself. The scheduling was planned perfectly. However, in 1977 the airline had took a hit, one of its small prop planes crashed into the alps on its way back from a cargo trip to Milan. It was the airlines first crash, and it scared many passengers away.

The airline had to cut back on its day to day operations to New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona. It had financially hurt the airline. It sold 1 of its 3 747's as-well as 2 727's to cope with the large amount of financial losses. To turn things around in 1979 the airline began a fly safer campaign to convince people to fly with Bavarian again, the commercial seemed to bring people back and its flights began to fill again to a point where the airline was no longer in the red for every flight.

By 1984 the airline had once again returned to growth and bought 8 new planes to acquire to its fleet. It had begun its massive European expansion. In the following years the airline would also return to its 2x daily New York Service, and it also became known for its outstanding safety and good quality meals and cleanliness.

1990s–2000s: Further expansion
The airline began to really take off by the 1990s being up to 30 aircraft by 1991. And starting its first south American flights, it also began to add west coast destinations, and many others dotted around the globe. The airline had made a plan, and it had found its market share and it stuck with it.

In 2001 the airline had expanded to a fleet of around 45 aircraft that featured many new modern aircraft, and it was at this time that it had decided to relocate its hub to Munich. Because it realized that this is where the majority of their passengers are commuting from anyway.

In 2008 the airline had begun to financially struggle, it was awaiting a large order of aircraft and had just purchased another smaller airline bavania it had no passengers to fill its seats. With a loss for what to do it begun to simply cancel flights that were unused and didn't fly at all. It had around 40% of its fleet just sitting on the tarmac in Munich and Nuremberg because there was no passengers to fill them. It had to also rapidly fire service crew. It managed to receive funding for a new advertising campaign that was due to start in the middle of 2009. It would increase the airlines market share and load factor to begin to turn around the financial losses that it had been receiving for the last 1 1/2 years. It changed the destinations that it offered, and re-shuffled its fleet to focus more on holiday goers. This turned out well, by 2010. The airline had almost returned to profit.

In 2014, the airline had bought its 2nd airline. sunglobe, the airline that would finally cater to the holiday passengers that the airline had begun to struggle because of its price restrictions. Therefore, Bavaria begun to focus on its mainline operations and arrange business contracts with large companies such as BMW. That would end up helping the airline out largely in its finances.

Current fleet
As of October 2019, the Bavarian fleet consists of the following aircraft:

First Class
First Class was inuse by the airline since the beginning of its commercial service until 2008. When it was scrapped in favor of Business Class, and more economy seats.

Business Class
Bavarian Airlines' business product varies by aircraft however it usually is a front facing seat with direct aisle access on its wide-body jets at least. It features a fully lie flat seat and an amenity kit from its partner BMW. The cabin design features light blues-turquoise colours on the seats with warm woods on the tray tables, and side tables. It also features a warm blue carpet throughout the cabin and a state of the art entertainment system that features a 24 inch flatscreen tv with over 100 movies at any given times and 50 TV-shows with over 200 episodes. Since 2017 the airline also features wifi on its transcontinental flights available for purchase for the price of $9.99/hour or $24.99/3hr or $29.99/flight. In 2018 the airline also addded a snack bar to the back of business class where passengers can grab a snack at any given time.

Premium Class
Premium Class was incorparated into the brand in 2008 in favor of First Class onboard. It usually features 34" of legroom onboard most longhaul aircraft and features 33" on shorthaul. It has blue-turquoise tinted seats with a state of the art entertainment program on long haul that is the same experience as business class. It features premium meals that put a taste of Bavaria in your mouth before you even arrive.

Economy Class
On Longhaul flights Bavarian features 32" of legroom with its state of the art entertainment program that has over 100 movies for you to enjoy. It also features blue-torquise seats like the rest of the cabin. On shorthaul the airline has 31" of legroom with also blue-torquise seats and offers no entertainment but does offer snacks on flights over 1hr in length. Also offering Meals on flights over 2hrs in length that will include a hot entree.